Fantasy Unleashed: World Arc 1: Ninjatopia (I)
by Xamusel - Gamma 11
Summary: In a universe where Kushina survives the night of the Kyuubi sealing, Naruto strives to prove that he'll be a better Hokage than either of his parents. However, terrors and organizations from across the Multiverse seek to either destroy or conquer the worlds. Can Naruto, along with his friends, defeat the forces of evil? (First in a series of Multi X-overs) (on the fence on pairs).
1. Pilot Part 1

**Fantasy Unleashed**

_Story written by Xamusel and F-14 Tomcat Lover_

Disclaimer: Tomcat and I own absolutely nothing about this fanfic in general. We only own whatever OCs might be involved in this.

**Xamusel Beginning A/N: Why I decided to write this story, I'll have absolutely no idea, but I thought it was a good idea at the time. Now, though, I need to ensure that I get this story back in tip-top shape for posting.**

**This story has an opening scene as found in the first episode, but modified to account for alternate universe stuff… which I won't spoil what it means for this story, because that would be utterly stupid of me to do. Also, if anyone is interested in finding out the Crossover materials used, I'll list them at the end of the World Arc.**

**Now… may the wheels of fate turn to show what all will be changed.**

* * *

_Ten years ago, a Nine Tailed Fox Demon suddenly appeared! Its tails lashed out, crushing mountains and sending tsunamis crashing to the shores! Each ninja rose to the task to defend their home ninja village._

"Hold the attack and wait for the Yondaime Hokage!" One ninja yelled out, before jumping forward to face the colossal demon as per his duty.

"It's getting closer! Don't let it get near the village!" Another ninja yelled, while throwing his kunai before he, too, went up to face the demon.

_Suddenly, a giant toad appeared from nowhere, crushing a few trees beneath its webbed feet. On top of it was a Shinobi, clad in a white coat with red flames, his sunshine blonde hair standing out as he stood before the all-powerful demon. This was the Yondaime Hokage, leader and hero of the Hidden Leaf Village. He stood all alone against the titanic beast in a night of swirling light and energy as he and his faithful friend clashed against the might of the demon._

_When the dust settled, no one was fully sure of the night. All we knew was that the demon was defeated. The battle, confusing and long, had been concluded. The demon sealed into a newborn infant. Such was the strength of the Kyuubi no Yoko._

_Now…_

_Had we known the truth then as we do now, we would not have breathed a sigh of relief…_

"NARUTO! KURINA!"

"GET BACK HERE YOU TWO!"

**_-Sigh!-_**

_Case in point._

**_Prologue Arc  
_****_Pilot Part 1  
_****_Butterfly Flaps Make the World Go Round_**

Uzumaki Naruto, a sunshine blonde with cerulean eyes and the strangest whisker marks on his face, and his adopted sister Kurina, a redhead with orange eyes and equally strange whisker marks on her face, were currently running as if they didn't have a care in the world while holding paint buckets in their hands and having a mixed group of Chuunin and Jounin, who served under their mother, chasing them. There was a reason for this chase, and that was….

* * *

"Hokage-sama! It's an emergency!"

"If I had to guess…" the redhead spoke quietly as she strode to the top of the Hokage Mansion, a palatable anger barely suppressed beneath the surface of her charming and lovely face. "…my _son _and _daughter_…," the way she said that sent dread through the two Jounin who still remembered who it was before for them. "…are pulling pranks again, aren't they."

"I'm afraid so, Hokage-sama," the first Jounin spoke to her as the three climbed the steps to the roof. "I have no idea why they would go this far though."

"Where did they strike this time?" Kushina let out a suffering sigh as they walked up the steps.

"The Hokage Faces," the second Jounin reported. A rather tacky and cheap vase sent by the Fire Lady as a 'gift' to the Hidden Leaf suddenly shattered as Kushina briefly glowed blue.

"Those two are so dead," the first Jounin whispered to his friend, who merely nodded as the three of them reached the roof to see the damage done.

"Erk?!" was Kushina's first reaction at the Hokage Faces, and for good reason.

The face of Senju Hashirama, the Shodaime Hokage, had three designs painted on it: something resembling a written character, slappishly painted in green and white, which only a child of 3 could do; what looked like a white booger coming out of the nose; and in red, the Uzumaki swirl.

Then the face of the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama, had three red slashes from his nose to his chin, blue eyelashes and cross shape scars and a yellow paint of coiled something or other.

After that was the Sandaime Hokage, who was standing next to Kushina with his ever present pipe in hand as he looked on his own face with white paint streaming from eyes and nose, with green and blue scar marks and red cheeks with eyes pointedly looking around the Yondaime's head at the Godaime.

"I know you're very beautiful Kushina-chan," the old Hokage chuckled lightly, "but I was happily married myself." Of course he would never admit the times he and Jiraiya had spied on her and the other ladies at the Hot Springs; otherwise, Sarutobi Hiruzen knew he would be that much closer to the end of his life.

"Actually," someone spoke up, noticing something. "I think that the eyes are actually looking over at the Hot Springs," the man said, as he pointed out that indeed the Hot Springs District was definitely there. A startled sound preceded by a smoke cloud from his pipe told how surprised and startled the retired Sandaime Hokage was at that, as he coughed and choked trying to clear his lungs to form coherent sentences.

As for the Yondaime Hokage, Uzumaki Kushina's late husband Namikaze Minato, and her own head, they looked like two blushing teenagers with all the looks of two stereotypical pathetic nerds trying to get together.

It was taking everything that Kushina had not to blow up and chase them around the village. She had a massive ninja force for that after all. Though in all honesty, she had only one ninja she could turn to at the moment, the only other major prankster in the whole village able to catch the two as they fled around the village.

Oh yeah, there was also the trainer of Sarutobi Konohamaru as well.

"Iruka-kun."

"Here Godaime Hokage," Iruka kneeled behind her to the right, a Chunin wearing the standard issue vest of his rank over a long sleeve navy blue shirt, navy blue slacks, his headband with the seal of Konoha on the metal plate, blue sandals, and a scar that ran across the bridge of his nose and under both eyes, his black hair in a top knot.

"Ebisu-kun."

"Yes, your ladyship," Ebisu landed to Kushina's left, kneeling behind her, his attire of a long sleeved shirt, slacks, blue sandals, black bandanna with the metal plate with the seal of Konoha on it, and black simple round sun glasses.

Kushina then began sweetly, "Can you two catch those two so I can have a real long discussion with them?"

"At once Hokage-sama," Ebisu shot off in pursuit of Kurina, as she was a safer chase for him compared to her brother.

"Will do Madam Hokage," Iruka let out a long suffering sigh. His annoyance was hot on his breath. "Although, I'll need to hold onto them for a lecture in class."

"Then do so," Kushina granted, and Iruka was off after Naruto, as he was always able to find that troublesome boy.

Kushina merely sighed and turned to look up at the defaced face of her husband, longing for him and his aid in rearing her troublesome children.

* * *

_Half an hour later…._

Naruto and Kurina were both tied up in their homeroom classroom as they ended up being berated by their main teacher, Umino Iruka, about what they had done. "I'm at the end of my rope here, you two!" Iruka started his lecture.

"I think you still have enough," Kurina deadpanned.

"You think that this is a cool way to spend your ninja career before it can begin?! I have to tell you, your methods of training are screwing up the whole village worse than any invading army could pull off!" Iruka lectured without stopping in mid-sentence like he would have before now. "If you want to succeed like your parents before you, then you have to pass the Genin Exam with better grades than you're showing right now, especially since I _know_ you two are better than this!"

Naruto had his eyes closed while he turned his head to his right, giving off a 'humph' while he did so, thus irritating Iruka even further.

"But! Because you two missed it, _everyone_ will have to review the Henge no Jutsu!" Iruka declared, making the whole class groan in disappointment.

* * *

Kushina organized her paperwork as she read through the reports. Kumo had backed down from its usual menacing of their borders. Largely, that was in response to the mutual threat of Kiri, the unstable village of the Five Great Villages. While she had never forgiven them for her kidnapping and the failed kidnapping of the Hyuuga heiress, resulting in the increasing tensions between the two different village's groups of ANBU, both knew that Kiri was both unstable and unpredictable.

The recent treaty both had signed in actual honesty saw that they were focusing more forces to dealing with missing ninja from Kiri and Kiri itself due to the ever increasing numbers of rogue factions in that village and its home country, the Land of Water.

"EARGH!" suddenly sounded from where the retired Sandaime was looking through his Crystal Ball.

"What the?" the redhead rose and walked into the room with Tiger and Boar covering her flanks.

What they found was The Professor out cold with blood coming from his nose. Then the three saw the Crystal Ball, still active, and there was Naruto laughing at two passed out Chunin. It didn't take long for Kushina to put two and two together and her face suddenly matched her hair.

_"He's a dead kid!"_

* * *

After the Ninja Academy let out for the day, Kurina and Naruto were both dragged by their mother to the Hokage Monument, making people wonder what happened to cause Kushina to do what she did… before they simply chalked it up as part of Naruto and Kurina's punishment. What the punishment was, nobody would know, at least not right now.

"Okay, you two," Kushina said to her kids when they made it to their destination. "I want to know if you two really are sorry for causing such a ruckus earlier today. If you are, you'll need to show me by cleaning the Monument of any paint, and I'll give you a good treat of Ramen, on me. If you don't, then you won't get your treat."

Their eyes shone brilliantly at that (the two of them had an insatiable hunger for Ramen that matched her own). Kushina looked on from above at her children's progress and was proud of the effort they put into cleaning the monument.

When her children finished cleaning the monument, there wasn't a single square centimeter of paint left. She thought of teaching them the Kage Bunshin technique… then decided against it for the time being. It was probably for the better that they didn't learn that for a while.

_'Less paperwork too,'_ she thought, knowing how foxy her children could be.

Fifteen minutes later, Naruto, Kurina and their mother were sitting at their preferred Ramen establishment, Ichiraku, while they easily devoured their ramen in great amounts. Kushina was really happy that her children were good kids at heart, knowing when they were in the wrong about a major issue, and willing to make up for their shortcomings. Not only were the three of them there for Ramen….

"Oh, Hokage-sama, I'm glad that you got your children to clean the mess they made of the Hokage Monument."

...but Iruka was there as well, much to Kurina's annoyance.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't mind. Iruka was like an older brother to him. True, it annoyed his sister sometimes, but Iruka was still very nice to her. He also helped to pay for some of their ramen from time to time when their mother was so busy being the Hokage.

"Naruto."

"Huh?" the boy looked up.

"Kurina?"

"Yes Iruka-sensei?" the girl also looked up.

Iruka had a thoughtful and curious look on his face as he eyed the two 10-year-olds before asking his question, "Why did you two decide to vandalize the Hokage Faces anyway?" Both blinked at the question. Though Kushina already had an idea herself, she still wanted to hear it from her children.

"You know the importance of the Hokage, being the children of not one, but two Hokage, correct," it was a statement. He knew Naruto would at least have an idea, since he wanted to be the Rokudaime Hokage himself and Kurina, well, truthfully, he didn't know her as well as he would like.

"Of course!" Naruto answered immediately, with a wide smile and his eyes closed, making him look like a jolly fox.

"We're told that our father protected the village during the last Shinobi War and, giving up his life to do so, vanquished the Kyuubi no Yoko, a feat said to be so unparalleled that it has brought to us a chance for peace," Kurina stated, recalling all she had been told and what she had learned over the years. She then looked down, forlornly, only for Kushina to wrap an arm around her and pull her in close, letting her know how much she loved her daugher, who smiled back weakly, though with some conviction.

"Then why did you two do that?" Iruka inquired. "If you know and believe that, why vandalize the Hokage Faces?"

Naruto laughed heartily, a joyous laugh full of youth and conviction, a sense of invincibility that adults no longer believe in as they get older, before he began speaking the why, "Because that's our way to say that 'we're gonna surpass our parents, believe it!'" Naruto declared happily. The orange tracksuited boy wore a wide happy-go-lucky grin. "I _will _be my _own _legend _and _Hokage! _ I'll_ make _my _way to the top on my _own _strength!"

Kurina merely smiled and nodded while maintaining her silence. Yes _she _would too _prove _her _own _strength. She was going to _prove _that _she _was_ Uzumaki Kurina_, a _kunoichi _greater than _her _mother! A new _ninja _legend all _her _own!

After all, she was…

"Kurina?"

The redheaded child blinked, looking to her side, orange eyes widening when she saw how close Naruto's face was to her own face.

Naruto, oblivious to this, asked, "Are you okay? You were a bit quiet there like-"

"Kyaa!" the red and white clad girl screamed and whacked Naruto upside the head as Kushina and Iruka both gave suffering sighs.

_'When will that boy learn?'_

* * *

Within the ruins of Uzushiogakure no Sato, there was a relatively intact building that had once been the part of the castle of the country's Daimyo. The building didn't look special and had thus avoided the serious damages of the other facilities within the walls. While the upper level didn't look special, there was a hidden tunnel that was so obvious that it was overlooked. This tunnel led to another part of the same building, protected by a battered but still holding door and serious seals designed to encourage attackers to leave rather than defeat them.

A room in that part of the building contained a cylindrical pod maintained by seals and machinery that was occupied by a naked young girl that looked roughly like she was 10 or 11, her long blonde hair going down her back and her eyes closed. On one of the machines, a countdown sequence was finishing its run, which led to a defrosting stage in which the girl in the pod was able to get her bodily functions back into gear… after a few minutes of waiting for the defrosting at least.

When she opened her jade orbs, the girl looked around for signs of any of the servants that she asked to be around, only to realize….

"Where did everyone go?" she asked out loud, fear creeping into her voice. As she looked at the calendar, her blood froze. It was supposed to be the duty of the servants to update the calendars every single day, but the calendar that was there was last updated on October 2nd of RSY 572, and the calendar was covered with a heavy layer of dust!

Stepping out of the pod and into the room at large, the child genius walked over to a computer console that was attached to the main power generator and activated it, showing to her shock that it was almost a month over 26 years since the calendar was updated! Granted, the day she was put in the pod was October 29th of RSY 570, the same day that she was released this year.

Shaking in fear of what could have happened to her friends and family, Kagekiri Yamiko looked through the databases of everyone that lived in the country and any living relatives they might have, only to find that almost every last citizen of Uzushiogakure was dead. The only one left in the village that was alive was herself, and that would never count the golems that were made to help the village out at times of conflict, considering that golems were never alive to begin with.

Tears filling her eyes, Yamiko _almost_ missed the records under the name "Uzumaki", showing Kushina and her own family alive and well… sans a husband for some reason. When she saw Kushina's name….

"Kushina?" Yamiko whispered in shocked relief, glad to see her earlier friend was doing alright and with children of her own, which caused her to remember a conversation they had with each other.

_A six year old Yamiko was walking with her dear friend Kushina home from their classes in advanced Ninja Theory and Application when Kushina asked, "Ya-chan, how would you like to be related to the Uzumaki through marriage and blood?"_

_Yamiko looked at her friend in confusion, before asking, "Ku-chan, what do you mean?"_

_Kushina looked to Yamiko, gave her a big smile, and said, "I mean, I want us to be more than just friends in the future. I want us to be the best of friends possible!"_

_Yamiko, for her part, could feel her heart beat extra hard at the thought of being related to her best friend… no, scratch that, her _only_ friend. She really wanted to be more than simple friends with Kushina, but, well…._

_Shaking her head slightly, Yamiko said, "I want us to be more than just friends in the future as well. I promise you this, should anything happen to keep me frozen in time, I'll be sure to come and find you after I get unfrozen. I really _want_ to be with you and whoever else for as long as possible… though I don't know when that will be the case."_

_Giggling for a bit, Kushina eventually said, "Silly Yamiko, there's no way that you'd be frozen in time while we're still together, especially not when we still need to have fun together~!"_

_"Wait, when did we go to first-name basis, anyway?" Yamiko asked with confusion apparent in her tone._

_Kushina smiled brightly and answered, "Ever since you agreed to be related to the Uzumaki, though I know for a fact that I won't set you up with anyone at all. That would be rude of me."_

_Yamiko's confusion wore off, allowing her to say with absolute certainty, "Alright… Kushina. I'm glad for that."_

_It was later that year when Kushina had to leave Uzushiogakure, but when it happened, Yamiko promised to make sure that things were safe for being with her friend later on._

Yamiko shook her head, clearing her mind of the memory for the time being. She needed to figure out how to get to where Kushina lived now, but she didn't know anyone in the area of the village ruins that could possibly take her to where Kushina was last heard from… if anyone was still alive in the vicinity of the ruins.

Sighing, she walked over to her room, feeling miffed that she forgot to keep her clothes nearby or in a sealing array that would keep them from wearing them out over time. It was going to be a cold day from what she could tell, and she didn't want to deal with the weather right now. She sure hoped there was something she could find to wear in her bedroom.

* * *

Two men screamed in horror just before their bodies exploded. Such was their fate, as the two were the last of the slavers in the hidden series of tunnels they used to store the young women and girls they kept. The group they had belonged to had mistaken a seemingly cute little blonde girl for being easy prey and quick cash in the pocket. Instead, in an ironic twist, the inevitable fate had finally caught up to the group of slavers in the form of one very irate Kyuubi no Jaakuna Kitsune as the young girl turned out to be.

She had played coy, pretending to be frightened and scared, and then lured them into a false sense of security and control. She had allowed them to come close, so tantalizing close that they were nearly foaming at the mouth with the thought of the money they could make selling her to any number of customers…

Then she ripped away their illusions and replaced them with the grim and dark reality of death.

She had not paid attention to their terror or their pleas, attacking them with an aurora of sheer malice. Their defenses and tools turned against them. She struck without mercy, killing them all as they fled, but they were trapped and they knew it.

Then, she killed them off, alone or in groups until only two of the men were left and then... in one final drawn out step crushed both of the last survivors.

The seemingly innocent face had only pure joy and revelry at the deaths of the slavers. Their screams of terror were such a high for her. The deep resonance of terror, fear, horror, and realization that they were going to die, filled her with ecstasy that she so enjoyed.

It made it worth being in her current form and allowed her to bleed off some stress that had been building up inside of her.

Though normally, after such a venting, she would go find a man and enjoy the next few nights, usually with new partners as few humans could keep up with her. But not in the imperfect form she had been left in. Her power nearly completely robbed of her.

"And on top of that," she grumbled angrily as she turned to leave the current -and she found the term ironically joyful- dead end, "They were a group only interested in females," she huffed a bit and while she would have likely done the same, in this form she felt a bit queasy at the thought of being sold off.

She stalked back to the main tunnel. The results of her rampage could be easily seen in the results left. Yet for her, she hardly paid attention, though now she felt herself to be more dignified and so she stepped around the messes she had created in her spree. She already knew she would likely have to seek out fresh clothes and a way to clean herself off.

It annoyed her, but she forgot one important detail during her assault…

With most of her power gone, she couldn't just clean herself easily anymore. She would actually need fresh clothes and a bath. While she loved baths, she wouldn't be Japanese if she didn't; she hated the idea of laundry. She wasn't some stupid mortal, after all, who obsessed with keeping clean. With her true power, she could just stay clean.

"How annoying," she stated to the air as she walked by the empty cells she was certain teenage girls and young women were placed into before being shipped off to some rural backwards area in need of young brides to produce more children, "And I'm supposed to be the 'evil' one, HA!" she laughed at the ridiculous nature of the base born humans, no matter the dimension.

She passed by the cells that were supposed to hold playmates for the wealthy offspring and sneered; she would be far more powerful than any human ever born.

Turning at the area used to train others into being barmaids, items still neatly stacked and ready for use, she made her way back towards the front. Though, as she was leaving, she heard a sniffle as her ears perked and she looked around the place for the first time since arriving.

There were children held in cages and cells all around her with others chained or strapped to the walls. Girls about her own age and others slightly older and younger, at least in appearance of the age she appeared. As her blue eyes scanned the group, she noted that there was no similarity between them all. They simply came from all over the place and covered about every part of the spectrum. Only that they looked miserable and frightened gave them anything similar.

_'Good,'_ she thought and prepared to leave, but then huffed in annoyance as one girl, chained to a cart ready to leave, whimpered in fear and tried to move away from her.

Normally that would have been fine by her. Unfortunately, there was no way that she could generate the power to just leave. All the signs pointed to them being in some land where there was high awareness to her power. As such, she just couldn't blow the door off its hinges and simply walk off into the evening.

Especially since she made a mess of herself earlier.

Fortunately, for her that is, she could still control the thoughts of the gathered children. She'll get useful info, and as long as she maintained some control over them, they would be useful agents as they grew older.

With their aid, she might even find a way back to Japan. After all, this was certainly not Japan. A similar feel, but as a Fox Demon of her power, she could tell the difference. It was strange to begin with and so… she needed allies.

Whether they wanted it or not.

"Do not fret little ones," she said. Her smirk was purely predatory with an evil glint in her eyes as she looked upon the gathered and bound girls and continued, "I'm not going to hurt you. In fact, I'll be taking care of you for a long, long time." The girls were in absolute terror of the seemingly innocent, but vile one among them, though a few saw it, the shadow she cast…

* * *

Two redheads stepped off the ferry, wearing simple brown hooded cloaks. The rain was coming down hard now. The ferry crew was trying to get everyone off so they could make for safer waters to wait out the storm that was brewing.

The two had their hoods up, which cast their faces into shadows. The only way the two could be recognized as redheaded young women was by the strands of red hair poking out from the sides of the hood and the faint outline of their faces through the shadows.

Several men looked their way, leering. They were situated in an alley and one of them tried to stop the girls. Several dogs suddenly appeared and made it clear that they had better stay away. Of course the men didn't take the warning seriously. One even drew a katana, stolen from the dead body of an unfortunate guardsman, and made a swipe at one of the dogs, nearly cutting its nose.

That was their last mistake.

When the town guards arrived, two of the men had to be dug out of the side of a building. They were still alive, but it was clear that these crooks had done something stupid.

They had pissed off ninja.

Now, if they didn't die from their injuries, there was always beheading.

* * *

Naruto reclined in a tree. He always climbed to this same spot when he just wanted to relax. It was peaceful and it let him unwind in thought.

People would be shocked if they knew that he, the ever happy go lucky ball of energy, was actually taking things slow and relaxing. Even he needed to take it easy every once in a while, otherwise he'd burn out. This particular tree was especially good for that. He yawned and stretched, then let dancing leaves lull him into a peaceful nap.

* * *

Kurina was beside herself. The nightmares had been plaguing her a lot lately. Thankfully, that idiot brother of hers always appeared to do something stupid. She could always count on them to help her forget them.

She was frightened, of course. The nightmares were so real. The dark whispers to do harm. She remembered-

"There you are, Kurina!"

The redhead blinked as her orange eyes went up to see the toweled covered form of her mother, interrupting her internal thoughts and worries.

"Mother?!" Kurina's face turned red as she saw her mother, she was seriously jealous, as her mother had an amazing body, while, right now, Kurina was a bit flat with a round face, so that many girls teased her as the 'Red Farm Tomato.'

"Come on!" the older redhead grabbed her daughter by the hand and pulled her along with a smile on her face. "You wash my back, I'll wash yours, okay?"

Like the younger redhead had a choice? Though she did feel the warmth of her mother's smile reach her heart.

* * *

Yamiko, now clad in her clothes, looked herself over in a mirror.

Her outfit consisted of a blue and white child's dress, trimmed in black, with a high collar and the hem went to her knees. She had matching detachable sleeves, unusual if not unheard of for a child's outfit. They were currently attached and had two red ribbons tied to the clamps that held them together. She also wore black long socks and white and blue children's boots, while on her head sat a blue beret with the crest of her fallen home on it. Another crest sat just above her heart on the left side of her outfit.

Then she picked up the two pistols that she was born to use. They were nearly half her height. As such, it was amazing she could hold them. Then she spun them and sheathed them into two holsters on her hips. In the event of needing to use them, she could draw them like swords and given how they sat on her hips, she could draw one or the other or even both with her opposite hands. It depended on her dexterity to draw and use both at the same time, something she felt she was not ready for, especially given their length.

Again, on both the pistols and the holsters, were stamped the symbol of her now gone country.

When she turned to pack all her remaining belongings inside of the storage scrolls, she nearly jumped out of her skin, all because of her personal golem, Mika, surprising her. Mika looked to be a tanned little girl with blue hair in long Princess Tails with Side Waves and two long bangs framing her face, her teal eyes glowing vibrantly. She was dressed in a purple body suit with pink sides that had a collar and went down to just above her knees. She also wore a double breasted frock coat that was grey with gold buttons that lead to oversized white cuffs on her wrists, held in place by gold cuff links. She wore a red and black open vest under that. On her legs were long violet boots that ended just beneath her knees.

On her back was a large pack and on her hips was a pair of tonfas held in holsters.

"MIKA!" Yamkio declared in shock, not having expected to see her personal golem standing before her.

"Greetings, Mistress Yamiko," Mika responded in that monotone voice of hers that kept her emotions hidden. "I have already taken the liberty of-"

Yamiko wrapped her arms around Mika's neck and pulled her in close. It was a profound relief that Yamiko still had one friend left in her dead homeland. She sobbed heavily into Mika's shoulder, unable to form words, overcome with joy at seeing Mika, fully functional and active.

Mika merely wrapped her own arms around Yamiko. She gently began to rub the sobbing blonde's back with gentle motions. She had reactivated when an alert system informed her that Yamiko had awakened. It had taken some time to prepare and present herself, but her timing, as always, was impeccable.

Yamiko didn't notice, though, that Mika had a slight smile on her lips and her eyes had briefly closed as she embraced her.

After several minutes, Yamiko finally calmed down. She felt no shame as she released Mika, whose face was as stoic as always.

"My (sniff) apologies (sniff) Mika," the blonde said as she sniffed one last time, managing to finally fully recover. "But I'm so glad to see you after so long," she pulled Mika in again to just make sure it was really her before finally being satisfied, "I just didn't expect to find anyone after what I discovered when I woke up."

"I understand Mistress Yamiko," the golem replied in her monotone voice, "I also did not expect to find much when I reactivated." She then looked around, glancing at the cracked and damaged walls, faded from years of neglect, before saying, "Or anyone for that matter."

Nodding at the signs of neglect and damage, it bothered Yamiko so greatly that she had forgotten to even try to look for Mika. "I'm sorry Mika," the blonde said as she shook her head. "I was just so shocked, I'd completely forgotten you, I should have known better." She then smiled weakly to the golem, saying, "I was the one that built you after all."

"Indeed, that you did, but I do fear that would have been it if I had been active at the time," Mika said, indicating the room they were in and far beyond it as well. "If my Mistress wishes to inquire about what happened," Mika began, anticipating this question would appear at some time in the future.

"Yes, I do," Yamiko said with a solemn nod.

"I'm afraid I cannot provide an answer as I appear to have been shut down some time prior, all data and memory of that period is also strangely missing," Mika said, still the way she normally was. It was then that teal met green, Mika continuing, "Nevertheless I am filled with joy to begin serving you again, my mistress, and I can report that I am fully ready to return to my duties."

Giggling at Mika's ever stoic statements, Yamiko felt profound relief. She was sad that Mika had no information to provide her with, but that was not as worrying as the fact that Mika had been active when Yamiko had entered cold sleep. The fact that Mika could not recall anything was startling. Additionally, it appeared that information and data had been purposefully removed from her, which added to Yamiko's list of unanswered questions.

Then she took in Mika's appearance again and quirked a blonde eyebrow.

"Er, Mika," Yamiko began again in some surprise. "Why are you here with a packed bag on your back and armed with your tonfas?"

"Mistress Yamiko," Mika said in monotone. "I believe it is imperative that we move everything from the labs over to Konoha, with us setting up a new base of operations somewhere in the forests surrounding the village. We don't know if Kushina-sama will remember you, or anything about the situation in the village, so we'd better go to Hi no Kuni the slow way and trek to Konoha by foot." Shifting the large pack on her back, she continued, "Additionally, all available records that were left have been packed as well for our relocation."

Yamiko nodded, that made sense to her. She was so glad that Mika was quick to think about such things. Then, Yamiko eyed the pack which Mika took as her cue to continue.

"On the topic of recovered items," Mika began at once. "I have found and recovered the entire history of our country, the hidden village, and the various clans and families, among other items of note and need, such as the Uzumaki Clan Jutsu Records, Scrolls, and even Theory." She halted to allow Yamiko to digest and then once the blonde nodded, Mika continued. "This of course is to say nothing of the records that may be able to eventually assist you in understanding what brought about the end to the Land of Whirlpool."

Yamiko was surprised at Mika's preparedness and forward thought. Then again, that was just how she was designed and created. It was a major leap forward. She knew without a doubt that she could rely on Mika.

"On a related note, my Mistress," Mika turned back to Yamiko. "I have also collected and stored all remaining equipment from the armories, recovered all the remaining taxes in the repositories, and stored for transport all remaining treasures of the land and hidden village, though I'm afraid in each case, there wasn't as much as could be hoped."

Yamiko frowned at hearing that, but then some concern set in as she asked, "What of armor and weapon prototypes among other kinds of equipment?"

"The prototype equipment area had not been discovered nor raided and all items inside were in good order, thus I was able to recover all items stored there within," Mika reported and Yamiko felt relief at hearing that. "Additionally I took the liberty to recover rare and endangered species of flora, but unfortunately, I have only been able to determine probable locations for fauna in the same categories due to a variety of reasons." Mika then tilted her head, asking, "Should I list the reasons, Mistress?"

"No Mika," Yamiko said as she shook her head. "That won't be necessary, as I trust you did all you could."

"Thank you, Mistress," Mika replied with a bow, "One last note on that subject," Yamiko was all ears, "We only need a base, some assistance, and a new preserve to move them to and we should be able to maintain and increase their numbers in the future."

"Mika," Yamiko began.

"Yes, Mistress?" Mika responded, before being suddenly gripped in a crushing hug.

"If I had made you a boy, I would kiss you right now full on the lips!" Yamiko declared happily. "I might still do that, don't know." She then held the golem at arm's length, asking, "Any other good news you have for me?"

"I'm afraid that is all, Mistress." Honestly, Mika felt a little disappointed about not getting a kiss for some reason, she mentally shrugged it off though without showing it on her face. "And to answer your question on my weapons, I believe we will be on a dangerous road, it is best to be prepared," she said as she tapped the pack. "I also brought my other weapons and found and recovered your armor, though I'm afraid it will need some repair and adjustments, as will my own armor."

Huffing in annoyance that was one thing that bugged Yamiko, but then she mellowed. "We can worry about the armor when we are safe and sound," she said, and then smiled again towards the golem. "Thank you Mika. I would be lost without you."

Mika had already begun to turn, so Yamiko didn't see the cheeks look brighter on Mika's face even as she kept that stoic tone that betrayed nothing. "I exist to only serve you my mistress," the golem's response was pretty normal. "If the mistress is ready, let us be on our way."

Yamiko gave off a sad sigh before she said, "Indeed." She would have to learn the truth someday. She set her tone full of resolve and said, "Let us go now."

Their nation was just a silent tomb now. No point in remaining, in case robbers returned to plunder any forgotten place.

* * *

Naruto walked through the streets of Konoha as the day slowly progressed. He was glad that school let out early that day, but he also wanted to find a good place to train as a Shinobi, where he wasn't being compared to his father all the time. Sure, he liked that he was recognized as a member of his own family, but this was just taking it too far!

It had been a couple weeks since he and Kurina had pulled the prank on the Hokage Monument, but nothing really big had happened since. Though he was probably going to prank that insufferable Kiba again. The Inuzuka boy just had to go off and run his mouth, again. Kiba has been getting full of himself lately, so Naruto saw it as one of chief duties to knock the boy down a few pegs.

Of course, it had nothing to do with today's remarks about his lack of Chakra control, or the fact that he pummeled Naruto at hand to hand today and was a bit abrasive about it.

That only made it all the better.

* * *

Even as Naruto made rather 'diabolical' plans to get back at Kiba, he was virtually unaware of the young girl following him. The girl followed with the utmost stealth, successfully hiding as she followed. Even the people that were walking down the road failed to note her as she made her plans. Yes, truly, she had her own plans in mind.

She followed her target into the ramen shop, allowing the waitress to notice her and collective her order. A short time later, the food was delivered to her target. But as she reached for her pills to sabotage the boy's food, she found them missing. She also discovered her wallet was also gone.

"Looking for these, Ino?"

* * *

Kurina watched as Yamanaka Ino froze and turned to look at her. The long haired platinum blonde's face was just priceless to Kurina. The orange and red dressed girl, though, shook her head as she handed back the wallet.

"Mind if I make use of these instead?" Kurina asked. She went back to eating her food as she pocketed the pills without an answer, explaining, "I want to use them on Ami later."

Hearing that name, Ino's face immediately twitched in annoyance. Purple haired and eyed Ami was a girl in their year. She was little more than a bully that got knocked down a few pegs whenever Kurina or Ino, usually both actually, felt she was getting to be a bit too big in the head.

So, Ino had no intention of stopping Kurina.

"Guess I'll have to make the sacrifice to curb stomp that twit," Ino answered. She went to eating her food instead; stewing over the fact she couldn't get at Naruto for that embarrassing prank he pulled with a microphone and the Academy's PA system.

Her mother had grounded her for a month and she still had 21 days to go.

Still, how did he get into the girl's restroom was a big question.

Suddenly both girls turned to Naruto when they heard his stomach make a strange gurgling sound.

"Oh man!" Naruto yelled. He then shot off, out of the stand and around the corner, shouting at the top of his lungs, "OUT OF THE WAY!"

The scene left the group of patrons and the two staff blinking at the sight. They had no idea what just happened. Ino turned to Kurina who only reached out and stopped the first person she could grab from outside.

"_Hey! _Kurina?!" the person shouted as they were pulled in. "What gives?" the person looked a little surprised at the eerie lack of anything. He then smirked devilishly and said, "_Oh_ I get it!" The person puffed their chest out and continued, "Now _you're_ gonna admit that you lo-**_ GURK!"_** That was when Kurina stuffed a load of the ramen from Naruto's bowl into Kiba's mouth to shut him up, gagging him in the process.

It was somewhat comical to see. Kiba was doing his best not to cry at the fact that Naruto had gone with a slightly spicy flavor tonight. Well, slightly spicy to Naruto anyways. If it was ramen, he'll eat just about anything. In this case, the house spicy special.

Once he had somehow managed to swallow without choking to death, much to the displeasure of both Ino and Kurina, Kiba coughed a bit, then turned on the redheaded girl.

_"What was that for?!"_ he demanded in a rage._ "Did you forget that I'm a-_"

Then Kiba's stomach suddenly gurgled and then he was off at a high speed run, not as gracious as Naruto had been, especially since he was holding the seat of his pants.

_"Who put laxatives in my meals?!_" Teuchi shouted, indignant and irate at the mere thought of the sabotage.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a separate part of the village, one Hyuuga Hinata sneezed into the sleeve of her coat. She really hoped that she wasn't catching a cold. Then again, she half expected her little sabotage to be affecting Naruto right about now.

Naruto… it's not that she really disliked him — as a matter of fact, she was taken with his confidence. But her clan wanted her to marry him, and she knew that it was just so she could help propagate the family line. She wouldn't allow herself to be trapped in some loveless marriage for the sake of bringing her clan greater prestige in the village.

She wanted to be a strong woman when she grew up, not some weak little girl who only kowtowed and giggled stupidly. She would be… uh, oh, a rather angry Hokage stood tapping her foot, drilling a hole in her with her eyes! Lucky to be alive, that's what she'd be if she ever grew up.

_'How does she do it?'_ Hinata wondered, as the Hokage reached out and Hinata was suddenly a very frightened little girl.

* * *

On the path to Konoha, Yamiko and Mika had walked at least 150 miles from the Uzu no Kuni-Hi no Kuni border and had made it within ten miles away from Konoha, with nobody trying to rob them while they were on the road. It was rather fortunate that they avoided bandits because they were carrying such valuable equipment and all the flora and fauna of Uzushio, but it seemed that their luck was close to running out the closer they got to Konoha.

Yamiko was worried that something wrong would happen before they got to the gates, though she knew that Mika would help her out of that mess, especially if the threat was of bandits-

Suddenly, a set of low-volume growls was heard surrounding the two of them and their entourage, causing the adults to shuffle themselves around the child-looking members of the group (much to their annoyance).

"What's that?" someone asked, obviously frightened as suddenly red eyes began to glow from the trees lining one side of the road.

Mika's response was to fire a flare pistol immediately. The dazzling light briefly blinded everything. But the purpose had been served as a flare dangled from a small parachute and revealed a group of mad looking wild lions.

"Something is not right," Yamiko said as she took in the view of the lions.

Their muscles bulged unnaturally as drool fell from their fanged mouths. Their eyes were shining an unnatural deep red light with no sign of their normal eyes. Their coats, normally a 'pleasant' yellow color, were a far darker, more unnatural color. Their size was also unusual for the breed.

"Mistress," Mika began after observing the lions herself. "These lions have been artificially induced into a rage. Unusual bulging of muscles, larger than normal size, darker coat, and mass amount of saliva indicate further tampering of their normal selves."

"Uh, Mika," Yamiko said as she pointed at the animals' eyes. "I think the obvious part was also the glowing red eyes."

"I was getting to that, Mistress," Mika continued on unperturbed by her mistress' interruption. "The eyes are being used by a controlling force to observe, which is why they haven't attacked just yet."

"Great," Yamiko stated sarcastically. She pulled her pistols out and then demanded, "Where the heck is the ANBU patrol when you need it?"

"Possibly not here yet or may not be coming at all."

"Another great," Yamiko sarcastically announced. At that moment, whoever held control released it and the lions roared and charged as Yamiko opened up with a hail of gunfire.

* * *

A pair of redheads heard a series of strange sounds. At first they were as soft as a cool evening breeze, but they began to change into deep growls, then roars. And it became clear that the sounds were very wrong.

"We better go help," the younger of the two, though it was hard to tell that, said.

"Yes," her friend agreed, but didn't move. "But first let's address our own threats," she stated as more growls, much closer were heard as more of the mad lions appeared before the two young ladies.

* * *

The guards surrounding Yamiko and Mika were the first to charge at the tampered lions, only for the lions to bat the spears out of the way with their enhanced paws and nearly tear the arms of their attackers off along the way. It was at this time that Yamiko started to target one of the lions that were about to make mincemeat out of the guards with her guns and fired at it, dealing heavy damage to the beast, and also angering it at the same time.

Not only did this get the now-heavily injured lion to turn its attention to the two of them, but the rest of the pack turned to the source of the shots as well, rushing towards Yamiko and attempting to prevent her from shooting at them again. It was at this time that Mika, armed with her tonfas, came between them and her mistress and struck out at the head of the pack with quick jabs at the eyes, crushing them and driving through to the brain, easily obliterating the lion.

The lions attempted to swat Yamiko and Mika down to the ground, though their ninja training proved to be superior, dodging the blows with Chakra-enhanced jumps, Yamiko spinning about in the air while peppering the lions with precise bullet wounds in critical areas. Mika, having put away her tonfas for the time being, pulled out two Kunai launchers that Yamiko had made in her spare time by the day before, aimed, and pulled the triggers. Near instantaneously, a multitude of Kunai flew into the bodies of the lions that were relatively uninjured and those that were injured grievously by that point.

With both of them landing on opposite sides of the lions, they surveyed their work, seeing that the lions collapsed from blood loss and were dying slowly but surely.

Suddenly, the lions got stepped on by a larger than average lion, one that was about the size of the Hokage Monument. Not only did the dying lions get crushed, the weapons used on them were crushed as well, leaving nothing but fine powder. This lion gave a nerve-wracking roar that would have made a lesser person die from hearing the whole thing, though it was rather fortunate that the lesser people were already unconscious, leaving Yamiko and Mika ready and waiting for an attack.

"Well… crap," Yamiko said as a general consensus of hers and Mika's opinion, the golem nodding her head in agreement.

* * *

As the maddened beasts attacked, the two redheads evaded. It was clear that they were crazed, so there was no time to lose in releasing them from their forced insanity. One launched an attack with Kunai that were carrying explosive tags. The blasts killed three as they were shredded by the explosions and debris from shattered trees, rock, and earth.

The other evaded, flipping over two to avoid another pair. As she landed, she brought up a bow and quickly managed to get off two arrows of glowing light. The arrows sunk deep into one of the lions. It roared in pain and agony before exploding into a red mist. The woman gave a prayer as she dodged and fired another arrow, this one driving through skull of another lion before partially exiting through the throat.

A moment later and she knew she had ended another noble creature's life, mercifully or not, it was not sitting well with her.

Her companion shared the same hard choice and its consequences. She landed on the back of another and quickly drove her kunai into the base of its head where it met the neck. She severed the vital location and the lion collapsed, rolling as she leaped off, barely dodging the claws of another, to rebound off a tree just seconds before one of the lions crashed into it.

The explosive tag she left on the tree exploded and the remaining half of the lion fell messily to the ground.

The second woman switched her bow out for a sword and with a single mighty swipe, split one lion from nose to the tip of its tail in two. She hadn't the time to mourn the creature as she spun to avoid being clawed open, but her sword finished the spin with her and cleaved another headless. The one she dodged came back, but she ducked under and stabbed upward, arresting the madden lion's momentum with raw strength; she tossed the body into the last three, tumbling them as they pursued her companion.

The first redhead didn't waste a moment and chains appeared from the ground and quickly restrained the berserking cats. They three struggled, but in a moment they were ended, a single tear escaping the woman as she held back a choke sob and a desire to cry out for them.

The fight was over.

"Whoever is responsible better pray to whatever they believe in that I don't get to them," the second woman growled angrily as she brought her bow up, an arrow of fire red light held at the ready.

Explosions and the sounds of fighting told of the other group under siege.

"Agreed," the first said with determined conviction as her friend released her arrow and the area was consumed in light and heat.

"Let's go," the second one said. The two were off as the area behind them burned bright enough to be seen.

* * *

"FIRE! THERE'S A FIRE IN THE WOODS!" a watchman shouted. About that time, bits of light from elsewhere followed by explosions and the sound of madden beasts reached his eyes and ears, having him report, "BATTLE! THERE'S A BATTLE GOING ON!"

Alarms sounded in a collection of alarmed sounds. Guards poured from barracks as the quick response teams rushed out to meet the battle. The Hokage strolled into the command center with a calm that eased others. She took command as civilians were rushed to the hidden shelters. The battle would be met with force.

Great gates closed with a mighty boom as lights pierced the night.

* * *

In the middle of the path in the wooded area where Yamiko and Mika were at, the giant lion was preparing to crush the two kunoichi in training (technically), with both the genius and the golem preparing for the worst in this case.

"This is going to hurt," Yamiko said with a sigh, "Isn't it?" She then gulped at the sight of the building sized lion when it came in full view.

"In all probability," Mika also looked up and showed no emotion, but she felt a nagging feeling. "That possibility is 10 percent at this time, though variable factors do exist."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Yamiko snapped at her golem.

"It means that we are likely to die in 90 percent of all scenarios that can be considered in all variable factors," Mika's response was dead panned dry.

"Gr-_REAT!" _Yamiko shouted, and barely dodged the swipe of the massive mad beast's claws, only to find that she was missing the center of her outfit, over her stomach and had a thin trail of blood leaking out_. "THOSE ARE SHARP!_"

The lion only roared and attacked again. Fortunately, they were small enough to evade. Unfortunately, there was a lot of flying debris.

The two dodged as best they could. It was a maelstrom of death flying all about them. If not for their small and nimble size, they might already be dead. Fortunately, whoever is controlling the giant beast seemed to be less interested in a quick kill, which improved their chances…

Not by much as one of Mika's socks is nearly shredded to pieces as she manages to avoid losing the leg it was on.

Then a particularly large branch crashes into the golem girl from behind. Mika coughed up a ruby red synthetic fluid that allows her body to function. She tumbles forward as the branch breaks in two. Her form lays stilled and unmoving, but her body, designed so much to mimic the human form she was based on, reveals she is still alive.

"Mika!" Yamiko shouted, only for the massive tail to whack her across the battle area.

The blonde girl tumbles and rolls for several dozen meters before becoming impaled on a piece of tree debris. She screams as the sharp end goes through her right shoulder and juts out, covered in her blood. Tears fall from her eyes as she breathes heavily, still screaming at the pain.

The lion then smacks her directly, but Mika intercepts and manages to lessen the blow with her great strength, but it was still not enough as both are sent flying.

Mika is seemingly destroyed as a bloody and torn up Yamiko looks on helplessly as the lion stalks overs, drooling and foaming at its mouth.

"No… no…" Yamiko pleaded as the lion stalked forward. "Not now... please not now," Yamiko looked on as the beast prepared to pounce, remembering her life up until that point, what she hoped to accomplish, and her…

Chains explode from the ground and quickly wrap around the duo and pull them to safety as the beast pounces only to get an arrow to its face that explodes on contact.

* * *

"Just in time," the one controlling the chains stated as she observed the unnaturally giant beast before as she settles the two girls down gently near her.

The other only nods as she observes the enraged berserking giant of a lion. She could sense the fel energies coming off the beast. She may not know the type of energy, but she knew evil when she encountered it. Now it was not her time to truly cut loose, but she knew she would like have to use a bit more power, if need be.

"This…" she trailed off, seeking a word that was simply not there. "This energy is very malicious," she shook herself. "It appears to have a warping effect. As far as I can tell, it was some time for the beast to be broken and bent and then made massive," she observed how it suddenly looked in their direction and she smirked. "But to fully use it, it must be controlled closely."

"This will be trouble," the first redhead remarked as she tended to the wounds of the two girls, only to find….

"What the?" she said as she held her hands over Mika. "No," she stated in quiet disbelief, not wanting to believe as she moved her hands up and down the unconscious golem girl. "You're Mika," she said as a small, gentle smile formed and tears silently began to fall, "Aren't you little one?"

The younger redhead gently moved a hand to cup Mika's cheek as she leaned forward to press her forehead against the unconscious golem's own. "I'm so glad," she said and sniffed a little, but then spotted how her pack had somehow survived, though a latch had come undone.

Gently, she pulled a scroll out and found it to be a storage scroll. She opened it up and discovered it was from her family's destroyed homeland. With a little hesitation, she removed an item from within, a Scroll of the Uzumaki Clan. "So this must be Kagekiri Yamiko then." She smiled at the blonde girl quite happily as she said, "So she did survive." She then turned with a frown to the lion that eyed them carefully.

"I shall buy you time and hold it off," her straightforward companion said. She then launched herself straight at the beast, clearing the vast distance in a single leap and smashing a fist into the side of the beast's head and sending it careening to the side and off its feet in the single move as the power was so great as to displace the air around its contact point.

Nodding as her friend and companion would hold the beast off long enough, the first redhead pulled back her hood enough to see to the two. Her dark eyes shown with care and gentleness as she took care of the two. Her gentle features on her thin face were smooth. Her long red hair held was held back by a white band. She would do what she could for Mika, but she was a little out of her depth on Golems, though she could at least set Mika to live long enough until Yamiko had fully recovered.

The other redhead smirked as she evaded the ponderous beast again. The massive size was working against it. Being smaller and more powerful allowed her to evade with nigh absurd ease.

With a slight twist and a quick back flip, she escaped another claw attack. Once she was set, she brought her bow on target and fired another arrow of light. Then she moved at once, flipping over the tail even as her shot impacted against the nose of the lion and exploded with electrical energy.

The lion roared in shock and pain as it shook its head. The attack had damaged its sense of smell and with all the drool and foam about its mouth, it was shocked something fiercely. The lion shook and wandered in a circle, confused and hurt from the attack. Then it howled as it suddenly regained control of itself, or rather, the puppeteer had.

"I do wonder where you could be?" the woman ideally wondered aloud and the head snapped to her. "Oh, yes, I can sense your power controlling this noble animal you filthy bastard you!" Her yellow eyes looked up, piercing through the glowing red eyes and into the eyes of the puppeteer, "You should know what you mess with before you do so!" She allowed her canine teeth to reflect light, just before she vanished and the lion was actually sent tumbling a good 900 meters, tearing up a length of the forest they fought in.

Once the lion had stopped and tried to regain its feet, the woman came down from above to drop kick it in the head. The massive beast slammed back to the earth in an explosion of dirt and debris. The woman came spinning out of it and the lion was hot on her heels, biting into the air she had just been.

Then she landed in a crouch, but not in a position most would consider good.

The puppeteer saw the short landing and charged. The lion was manipulated into attacking the woman as she had yet to rise from her crouch. As the lion closed the distance, lights danced beneath the woman's hands. It was clear, she hadn't been crouching, but getting ready to attack again.

Suddenly, chains exploded from the earth. The pure, raw energy of Chakra quickly wrapped itself around the lion and pulled it back. The lion fought back and a vicious struggle ensued as the lion and the woman fought for dominance.

All the while, the yellow eyed redhead continued to charge her power.

* * *

"Those are Uzumaki Chakra Chains?!" Dog looked on in disbelief, for never in his wildest dreams did he expect to see those used by anyone again save for the Godaime Hokage.

Tiger kept his senses better, saying, "Send a message back to the Lady Hokage and now!"

* * *

The lion berserker pulled hard left, only to find there was no resistance. This allowed it to seemingly begin to escape, but then a sharp yank to its left caused it to overbalance and roll over as it was held down tightly. The beast struggled to get off its back and regain its footing. It was mostly successful, but more chains wrapped and held ever tighter.

Nevertheless, the sheer might of the larger beast and its raw, uncaged, and enhanced madness caused it to begin to win ever so slightly. It pulled hard to the right and immediately yanked left followed by a powerful buck onto its hind legs. Several chains strained and nearly all had to be loosened to some degree to prevent their destruction. The mad monster was winning.

With a deft pull, the chains began to slip and fall and the lion roared mastery, but then they recoiled and bound ever so tighter, wrapping around the legs so effectively and suddenly that it fell forward into the ground.

"Now!" the first redhead shouted as she reeled the beast in after a long and tense struggle.

Her comrade didn't dither.

Her eyes shot up as her hood fell down and she brought her hands up as she charged forward, slamming her hands together to forge a massive sword of yellow energy that glowed as bright as the sun and then stab forward in a classic samurai sword attack.

The lion roared in defiance as it struggled to break free, the red eyes glowing ever brighter as the chains suddenly vanished and the yellow blade of energy dove into the neck of the frenzied beast and down into its heart, cutting upwards and through its spine…

As the woman landed, her fox ears twitched and the giant lion exploded from the embedded sword cascading out of control now that there was nothing to hold it together.

"Spirit Sword Technique," the fox woman said softly. "Earth Light Purification Explosion of Release." With a sigh she brought one hand up and then snapped it out to the side, the remaining energy turning the area into an inferno, destroying all that had been tainted. "Rest in peace noble ones and let your spirits be reborn pure and anew from this vile work of evil."

She pulled her hood back on as flames spread her way, engulfing the area before retreating leaving no sign of her.

* * *

Despite being civilians _and_ the children of the Godaime Hokage, Naruto and Kurina both managed to slip past the gate as the ninjas made their way to the site of one of the battles, the ninjas going towards the scene with the fire while the siblings made their way to the other location.

They both knew that they'd be in trouble later, but at least a proper use of Kage Bunshin and Henge would make it look like they were still in Konoha, though they didn't know how much longer they had.

Kurina, fortunately, was the Sensor-type in the family, so she could tell when they were about to be followed, or tracked down for that matter. It was also a way for her to tell where the next battle was going to take place.

With that, Kurina took the lead in the search for the battlefield, directing her brother to follow her as well. With a few minute spent on finding their way to the correct area, they finally got to where they could see the fight, as one-sided as it was for the girls that were fighting such a giant monstrosity. They knew that, unless the two girls wanted to die, someone needed to pull them out of there. Before they go rushing in to save the girls….

Chakra chains surrounded both girls, causing Kurina to widen her eyes and look to the source. It was a hooded woman in her apparent twenties, but the hair and chakra chains gave her away as a lost relative of their mother. The strength of those particular chains was strong enough to be a match for their mother, probably greater, but only because they were untainted chakra chains. Because the chakra their mother used in her chains was corrupted by the Kyuubi no Yoko, it couldn't hold anything with the strength it did in the past, unless it was a Bijuu like the Kyuubi.

Then there was the fact that an arrow was loosed at the lion, causing an explosive force upon hitting, which normally didn't happen unless one was using either Nature Chakra or Demonic Chakra of some sort. It also complicated things considerably when the second redhead moved into an attacking position without her bow in hand. Then it became clear that the archer was also good in melee combat, though probably not quite on par with their Aunt Tsunade, if the energy used was any indication.

Naruto, while he also observed the battle and the findings his sister did, couldn't help but get the sneaking feeling that someone at least three kilometers out was controlling the giant lion. He didn't know where the feeling came from, but it was apparent that something was happening to him, or at least he was more attuned for whatever was going on.

He watched as the beast tried to defeat the one fighting it, but to no avail, as the redhead fighting it was both incredibly agile _and_ incredibly powerful. It was at about the time that she flipped over the beast's tail that she drew the bow again, firing an arrow of light, and then saying something to the lion… or, rather, the one controlling it. That was when the lion was knocked 900 meters away, at possibly the full power of the woman fighting the beast, and hopefully in the direction of the puppeteer.

It was to his dismay that the beast was not knocked towards its master, but rather some fair distance away to the left of the puppeteer, which meant the guy was safely hidden from the ones ripping him a new one… whatever that meant. He heard that phrase from his mother at times, though he never questioned what it meant, particularly.

That was when the drop kick happened, knocking the lion into the ground for a short bit, before the lady flipped away and made to prepare for an attack against the beast. The puppeteer manipulated the beast to attack, believing her to be crouching only… only for the Uzumaki to use her Chakra chains to restrain the beast, making sure to hold it tight.

After seeing the giant creature get pulled to its back and then trying to regain control of its freedom, Naruto and Kurina heard the signal to have the beast killed, the second redhead forged an energy katana and ran it through the lion's neck and down to the heart, swiping upwards and revealing fox ears on her head… which was probably the least odd thing about the situation, to be honest.

It was roughly around that time when an inferno came about. Naruto wondered what happened to the fox woman, but it seemed that she made it out alright, given her unique energy feel still being around. It was roughly fifteen seconds after the battle finished that Kurina tugged on his shirt, so he turned to her and asked in a whisper, "What's wrong?"

"Mom's here," Kurina whispered, pointing to where Kushina landed from her tree hopping towards the area. "Let's hope that she doesn't find out we're here."

"A bit late for that, kiddos," came their mother's voice from the side where they weren't paying attention to.

Turning to face their mother in the clearing with the inferno, they still saw her, but then heard a poof of smoke from the other direction. That clued them in to the answer as to how their mother was in two places at once.

_'Crud… Kage Bunshin!'_ was the thought of both Naruto and Kurina before their mother marched over in their direction.

* * *

A few minutes later, Naruto and Kurina were looking at the ground ashamedly, due to the stern dressing down from their mother. It was something that they didn't want to have happen again, being victim to Kushina's discipline, so they decided to play good for a good while.

It was while Kushina was about to march Naruto and Kurina home when Kushina looked to her left and saw a blonde-haired girl and a blue-haired girl next to an intact tree. Several ANBU were looking them over, likely survivors from the convoy that was supposed to be in this area. They were finding pieces of the guards and some of the people that had been with it. Fortunately, there were other survivors, so things were panning out, but it was as she was about to dismiss them, that she noticed a blue beret on the ground in front of her.

"Hm?" she bent over and picked it up and brought it up, a little surprised to see this particular design again.

She tried to remember when she last saw a beret. They were foreign in design, but had caught on in some of the island and smaller coastal nations because of their simple, yet useful design. She shook her head, she shouldn't really look this one too deeply.

"Lady Hokage?" Dog stepped forward, looking concerned.

"Pay no heed Dog," she replied. As she turned the headgear in her hand one last time, she asked, "Any idea who owns this?"

"I believe the blonde girl with the medics over next to the tree," the ANBU with ashen hair responded with a light wave of his hand.

"I see," she said, turning the beret over to him. "I haven't seen one in years."

"Yes ma'am," Dog said. He knew that berets were popular in some countries, but most of those had been destroyed because of their involvement with Western influence.

He personally would never understand such xenophobia.

Just as he turned to leave, he held the beret up and noticed a piece of metal attached to what he assumed the front. _'What's this?'_ he thought as he gently smoothed the cloth out. To his surprised look, he looked upon the symbol of the Land of Whirlpool.

_"Lady Hokage!"_ he shouted immediately as he quickly turned to her and equally quickly made for her side.

"Hm?" the redhead turned to see Dog run up to her, showing the beret and then held it out with the symbol visible for her. "It can't be!" she exclaimed, startled at seeing the symbol of her old homeland, the nation that had given birth to her.

But there before her was the crest of that nation, but not just any crest. The outlining of the crest, the metal used to forge it, and the blue beret's chief quality. There was no way she could ever forget such a design as well.

It was a Royal Beret.

* * *

Yamiko groaned as her green eyes began to slowly make themselves open. She hurt all over, but the pain was not so bad. Her shoulder felt numb for a second, but then, like a switch had been thrown, fire flared through her shoulder and other areas of her body. Naturally she screamed loud as the pain was intense and burning.

"MEDIC!" a voice called out immediately as she struggled with the pain, but felt hands try to hold her down_. "DAMMIT! MEDIC! ** MEDIC!"**_

_"I'M HERE!"_ a woman shouted as she leaped over the some fallen trees and slid on her booted feet to a kneeling stop and began to tend to the screaming girl, her green eyes alight with pain as tears ran down her eyes._ "Dammit!_ She was worked over," she stated, noting that someone had tended to the wounds. However, it was serious injury, and the medic doubted that even the Legendary Healer could completely heal these wounds short of a fully staffed surgical room. "Someone tended to her earlier, but the wounds are just so severe!"

_"YAMIKO!" _a woman's voice cried out suddenly in a panic.

_"LADY HOKAGE!"_ a Jounin cried out as he grabbed the woman._ "STAY BACK AND LET THE MEDIC WORK!"_

_"YAMIKO! YAMIKO!" _Kushina screamed as several more ninja grabbed and pulled their Hokage back, confused, but knowing they had to react.**_ "YAMIKO! MIKA!"_** yelled the redhead, who was pulled back immediately.

"Come children," the wizened voice of the Third Hokage could be heard as he came and took over the scene. Kushina was no longer a leader at the moment. He nodded quietly to a medic who then jabbed the woman with a sedative and, as Kushina fell away to sleep, Yuhi Kurenai, a young and up and coming Chunin, guided her children to safety.

"Miss Kurenai," Naruto said as he turned to the red eyed woman who 'hmmed' gently in response. "I had a strange feeling, like I could sense the person controlling that monster, far over that way." Naruto pointed and Kurenai blinked as she looked and gauged the distance where there was a small rise at least three kilometers away.

It was far away, sure, but she hadn't heard of it being impossible. Some Sensor-Type ninja could sense as far away as 10 kilometers, though normally with something to act as a means to assist. Still, it wasn't impossible either for someone to control from far away, for example, Sasori of the Red Sand was said to have that ability with his puppets or even people.

Quietly she nodded to Cat who merely tapped Otter on the shoulder who nodded as well to her hand signs.

The ANBU would probe, carefully and quietly.

While it may be nothing and certainly so, as no Chakra was detected, it would be best to be careful anyways.

After all, no one had seen Lions controlled or altered like that before.

* * *

Within a part of the forest left untouched by the taint and by the inferno, the puppeteer looked on in amusement from sitting atop a high tree branch, thanks to his enhanced eyesight. He noted that the natives of this part of reality were, for the most part, more or less Ki blind, if the bursts of Ki he displayed were any indication, though there was one person in a 4k radius that managed to sense him all that time he released the bursts. He figured that the person was just a kid, but an adept sensor of Ki if he had ever felt one in his life, given that the kid barely had any Ki of his own at present.

"Hmm… so the kid was able to sense me, eh?" he said, seemingly to himself. "I wonder how this will play out with the scenario that Barnabas wants flowing."

_"No matter,"_ a disembodied woman's voice said from the man's right. _"Now that the kid has those annoying pests looking in this direction, it'll be for the better if you relocated to a different area, so that you can avoid this sort of trouble in the future. Nobody is supposed to know you're here, Lucas Calador."_

"Yeah, I suppose that's right," Lucas said, seemingly unconcerned for his status as a Ghost soldier. Getting up from his spot, he jumped down to the forest floor below, landing in a crouch. Upon standing upright, he turned his head to look behind him and said, "Y'know, it'd probably do you some good to take a vacation in an alternate reality every once in a while. The Paradigm Shielding is pretty impressive if it can keep one's powers intact in different realities."

_"I'm not interested in taking a vacation anywhere that hasn't been conquered by us in Imperium, Lucas, and you know it,"_ was the irritated reply.

Lucas sighed at hearing that, before saying, "See, _this_ is why you need a vacation. You get too irritated when you're in the base all the time, so it's for the better that you take a break in a non-conquered world. Besides, C'iel and Gaira aren't around in this dimension, and they probably never were or will be. I think this place is pretty safe from outside interference."

The voice that Lucas was speaking to didn't answer for a bit, before he heard the female say, _"I hope you're right about that. I don't want to lose you to anyone or anything."_ With that, the voice left, leaving Lucas all alone in this part of reality.

Lucas, for his part, continued his trek to a different part of the country he was now in. Perhaps he would get lucky and get a decent challenge for himself again… who knows what the future has in store?

* * *

_The next morning_

In the Hidden Rock Village, comprised of homes and other buildings carved into some of the mountain range in the immediate area, the Sandaime Tsuchikage, Oonoki, was busy doing paperwork for his village when a knock was heard at the door.

Stopping his paperwork for a short bit, he looked up with a smile and said, "Its open, Naru."

When the door opened, it showed him a young girl of approximately 10 to 11 with bright crimson hair and cerulean blue eyes, dressed in red shorts, a shirt with a red torso and blue sleeves, and a pair of black Ninja Sandals. On her left thigh, there was a kunai and shuriken holster, while, attached to her left hip, there was a Ninjato built to her custom specifications.

Naru gave a polite bow to Oonoki and said, "Oji-sama, I was hoping to ask you about when I'm supposed to graduate from the Iwa Ninja Academy. I'm already at the top of the class, and I don't know why I'm being held back by the rest of the student body. It just doesn't seem fair to me, having mastered the lessons the Academy taught from the beginning, to still be stuck in the same class as a bunch of beginners who don't know how to mold Chakra correctly. I don't know if my patience can handle it any longer, considering that I feel the urge to lash out at some of the civilians of the rural villages outside of Iwa, but—"

Oonoki held a hand up to stop Naru in mid-sentence, saying shortly after, "Naru, if you wish to be a Kage, you'll need to be a patient woman. Believe me; it's for the better that you learn how to help others in any aspect, before you get to order others around." With a pause, he thought of another reason for patience, saying, "Besides, you need to have patience before you can reach an important step in being a Kage."

Naru blinked her eyes in confusion and surprise, before asking, "What important step?"

"The step of being a Jounin teacher," Oonoki replied, mirth in his voice. "You'll need to know how to teach the next generation and put up with their antics as well."

Naru, despite herself, couldn't help but sigh in annoyance from how Oonoki had essentially said that she needed to teach a three man cell how to behave in the real world. It was a slap in the face, so to speak, and she especially hated it when this sort of thing happened to her.

Still, because it was an answer from her grandfather, she knew that she had to accept it.

Then an ANBU landed in the office and Naru wondered how they did that. The woman clutched a scroll to her body before humbly turning it over to the Tsuchikage who only made a 'tsk' sound. He was getting old and had it not been for that traitor's actions, he'd still be retired and enjoying it.

Hot Springs were nice and all, but so were tropical beaches and he was so looking forward to regular trips to the Moon Kingdom.

Nevertheless, he opened the scroll and began to read it, before his jaw dropped.

"Is this confirmed?" he didn't stop as he read every bit of the details held within.

"Yes Lord Tsuchikage," the woman in the typical camouflage pattern of their local environment, even the mask was had a camo pattern and she wore a camo cover over her hair, responded once the question had been posed, "Additionally, we too have had several encounters in the last few days with unnaturally large and rabid beasts including normally docile animals."

"There was a report about that in the DMZ areas correct?" Oonoki got up from his seat as he finished reading and made his way out of his office, followed by his curious granddaughter, her two ANBU guards, and the ANBU woman as they made their way to the Operations Center and to one of its maps that were now marking known areas of attacks by such large and mad animals.

"As well as a rumor about Waterfall, sightings in Rain, reports in Grass, and a few confirmations at a number of other areas," the woman had waited until they had reached the map to indicate something else, "And more are being reported."

Oonoki nodded as he watched as the area around the Leaf Village was added, plus two attacks near Mist and another directly on Cloud. He frowned as he rubbed his goatee and observed the attacks; some marked accordingly at the moment as rumors and reported until verified or disclaimed. The sheer number was hardly staggering as it was so few, but the numbers didn't lie.

"We're in for something that will be uncomfortably long," Oonoki stated with a grimace as he observed everything.

Naru said nothing, just observing. She saw how her grandfather was reacting and studying the situation. He was like a mountain and would only move when the time was right. He carefully studied the map, though expecting more and with little information, he acted in a way to increase security and gather that information smartly.

And yet….

In his eyes, she could see the truth. He had just resigned a number of people to their deaths. He knew it, but there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. This was not like before and that bothered him. Yet he acted with the experience time had granted him both on and off the battlefield and in and out of the office.

He was the Tsuchikage.

What she wanted to be in that moment and yet there was no flair to it.

She was awed and enamored deeply by it and how calmly he went about it.

* * *

**Xamusel Second A/N: Hmm… this went better than I thought. Honestly, I was expecting that this would flop by the time I got to half-way through the chapter, but I guess I outdid myself on this one.**

**Now… in regards to the last part, what's Imperium, and who's Lucas Calador? In reverse order, Lucas is going to be a somewhat-recurring minor villain over the course of the really long story, and Imperium is the name of the organization that he works for… though, believe me, all the major villains from Imperium are only gonna have one fight with the heroes before going down for good somehow.**

**...if the bit on Imperium didn't answer anything, good, I don't want to answer any questions that would be problematic to answer at this point in the story.**

**Oh, one other thing, "Kyuubi no Jaakuna Kitsune" is the Japanese for Nine-tailed Malevolent Fox. I'll allow three guesses as to who this character is that we pulled from alternate media.**

**Also, if you want to have a question answered, please review with your question. I'll be sure to answer said questions with a straight reply in due time (at the top part of the story).**

**Alright… here's Tomcat with his notes.**

* * *

**Tomcat First A/N: Hopefully this works out well. We've been busting our chops to get it done. So we hope you appreciate our work.**

**That aside, I'm personally hoping we can do this right. There will of course be those who will say 'impossible,' but hey, you know what? I say, 'Let's make lemonade with grapes and let them scratch their heads like monkeys trying to figure that one out.'**

**I'm gonna state this now, but don't expect perfection. We ain't gods, so don't expect it. We'll do our best, but we'll do it our way. So anyone who can't agree that this is a work in progress or simply loves being a flamer, I got a load of Anti-Fire Buckshot right here.**

**Cha-CHUK!**

**Any takers?**

**That aside, I hope you enjoyed the story.**

* * *

**Xamusel Third A/N: Alright. That ought to do it for now.**

**Anyway, if anyone wants to know, there's going to be a reason why the next chapter won't be released as quick as possible. As of 10/27/2013, work on the rest of the story began, what with the planning stages being heavily revised to allow for more flowing between the months in-story. Tomcat and I will be adding more content every so often, namely with a few chapters already prepped for publication, but some of those will be in cold storage for the time being. Besides which, I'm thinking about five chapters will be put in cold storage at a time, and a chapter will be released on the completion of the sixth chapter.**

**Okay… time to submit this. Hope it works well for you all. If not, well, we're looking for some good beta readers that don't pull their punches in regards to this.**

**_Sayonara no Tsubasa  
_****-Xamusel**


	2. Pilot Part 2

**Xamusel Fourth A/N: Alright, here's the second pilot chapter of Fantasy Unleashed, which will have some major theme building for the story that Tomcat and I are working on making. It's gonna help set the stage that was built last chapter, which introduced a group and a minor villain that will start to become a major nuisance for the world, by adding onto the groups that will be causing trouble… even more so than Akatsuki.**

**By the way, why did I label this as the ****_fourth_**** A/N of mine? It's because it is my fourth one of this story, that's why.**

**Oh, for those of you interested, the previous chapter was edited heavily including new content.**

**Anyway, on with the story, everyone.**

* * *

**_Prologue Arc  
_****_Pilot Part 2  
_****_Home is where the heart is_**

Naruto walked down the road to his family's residence from the Ninja Academy a couple days before Valentine's Day in a good mood.

It had been three months to the day since Yamiko and Mika were brought to Konoha. Not only was Yamiko healed enough to get Mika fixed, but the two of them were able to integrate into the village pretty easily, given that his mother was able to vouch their story of being from Uzushiogakure.

Still… why was he in such a good mood?

Well….

* * *

_A couple hours prior, in the Konoha Ninja Academy, Naruto was listening to Iruka-sensei on how important traditions in the world are. Normally, that was covered in other classes, especially for students who wanted to get an early start on infiltration training, but Naruto had a hunch that there was an important reason for the lesson of the day._

_"Alright, class," Iruka said. "I have an announcement to make. The Godaime Hokage issued a decree last night that lets us celebrate traditions that were introduced to us by the non-Ninja villages." After hearing a gasp of surprise, Iruka continued, "Therefore, in two days' time, we'll celebrate a day called Valentine's Day. In the following month after, there's a reciprocation day called White Day, where the ones to receive chocolates on Valentine's Day, the boys, will have to give gifts that are three times as expensive minimum to the girls that give them chocolates. I hope that you all play by the rules with this tradition."_

_With that all said and done, a pink-haired girl with green eyes, Haruno Sakura, shot her right hand up in the air, asking, "Iruka-sensei, do you mind if we girls in the class have a strategy meeting with everyone else out?"_

_Iruka, perplexed by the question, answered, "Uh… sure, I'll direct the others out of the classroom."_

_Getting the clue, the boys got up from their seats and headed out to the hallway, not wanting to risk the wrath of the girls. Naruto looked at his sister and saw that she had a knowing smirk on her face, so he decided to leave it be, figuring that she knew what was going on. Before he turned his head away from her, Kurina gestured for him to meet her on the roof of the school after this was over, which meant that she was gonna tell him about the purpose of the meeting._

* * *

_An hour later, the impromptu meeting ended, just in time for school to come to an end. When Naruto saw the girls walk out of class, he noticed that Kurina was headed towards the stairs, so he decided to cheat his way to the roof. With a quick Shunshin, he arrived on the roof, where he noticed that there were people putting up decorations for the upcoming festivities of Valentine's Day. Not only were there heart-shaped decorations, but there were other forms of decorations, including __**tenshi**__ carrying bows and arrows that had heart-shaped arrowheads… what culture used such decorations normally?_

_Before long, Kurina showed up from the roof's doorway to the school, ignoring the decorations as she made her way over to Naruto. After walking to him, Kurina said, "Naruto, your fanclub's got an agenda to see about who will give you the most expensive chocolate, something I've been having trouble shooting down."_

_Groaning, Naruto said, "I still can't believe I have a fanclub. Why do we even __**need**__ fanclubs in the first place?"_

_Sighing, Kurina said, "Can't be helped. There's nothing that can be done about the whole thing, given that much of modern society is comprised of fans of one thing or another, like the Ninja way of life. It may be outlawed to have a fanclub eventually, but it's not possible right now, given that we as a society need to have reasons to join either the Samurai forces or the Ninja task force."_

_Naruto groaned again at that. He didn't mind that there was motivation to join either the Samurai or the Ninja, but he absolutely detested fangirlism, which was pounded into his head by their mother._

_With a resolute nod, Naruto asked, "Who's going to make what amount of homemade chocolate and to whom will they give it to?"_

_Kurina blinked in surprise, before she sheepishly scratched her face as she said, "I-it's not really gonna be an awful lot of people that will receive homemade chocolate. As far as who will make the homemade chocolate, Sakura-san's going to be making you some, and we both know that she's got a huge crush on you."_

* * *

It was shortly after learning that Sakura was going to make Naruto some homemade chocolate that their rooftop meeting ended, with Naruto going straight home, seeing as Kurina had something to do at the Hokage Mansion. Naruto wondered what sort of business would be taken care of by her there, but he chalked it up to needing to speak with their mom, probably about who would be a good fit for the upcoming festivities of Valentine's Day.

Naruto shook his head to clear his thoughts from who might end up with his sister. He wasn't a siscon, mind you, he just worried for his sister's well being in a very platonic way. That would be the reason why he had murderous thoughts towards Uchiha Sasuke… wait, bad thoughts, BAD THOUGHTS!

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Uchiha Clan district, Sasuke sneezed while practicing the Katon: Gokakkyu no Jutsu. As such, he sneezed fire and nearly burned some of his clothes off, making his father wonder what was wrong.

* * *

Kurina was starting to wonder if this was a good idea afterall.

She was heading to her mother, the Godaime Hokage, and ask if she could have some chocolate-making lessons to woo her sweetheart. Of course, she didn't know if she made chocolates for their deceased father or not, but it seemed like that was the case.

But that aside, she had to struggle with 'those' feelings.

She knew she shouldn't be feeling them. She knew she shouldn't have been thinking about them. She knew how much trouble they could get into because of them.

But she couldn't deny them for some reason.

That she-

"Hey Kurina!" and Kurina nearly launched herself skyward.

Behind the startled the redhead was another girl, this one whose eyes were full of merriment as the redhead worked to calm her beating heart. Still the new redheaded girl had a good laugh at Kurina's expense as all the orange eyes could do was glare at the smiling yellow eyes. Oh they had one heck of a rivalry going right now for sure, but that didn't mean they couldn't have fun, even if it was mostly Kurina on the end of that stick.

"Karui," Kurina flatly replied, not at all pleased to see her here, "Why are you here anyways?"

The dark skinned girl just shrugged and then thumbed in the direction of her teammates and their sensei. The three were speaking to one another about one thing or another. Of course, though, with them was Mabui and she looked to be keeping an eye on Killer Bee.

Kami-sama knows that was **_not _**the easiest thing in the world.

B could be as slippery as the Pervy Sage, if admittedly cooler.

Rolling her amber eyes, the redhead turned her fellow and spoke seriously, "You know there's been trouble lately right?"

Kurina gave a flat look.

"Aside from the 'usual' trouble that is," Karui clarified and Kurina winced, but nodded, "That's what brought the Lord Raikage here today, along with the Lords Hoshikage and Kazekage."

Kurina blinked surprised at hearing that, "Lord Hoshikage is here?" but then she realized a title was left out, "What about Lord Tsuchikage?"

Karui raised her shoulders and brought her hands up while making a face that said it all about Iwa, but she did answer about Hoshi.

"He's apparently very concerned," she then indicated the Hokage Mansion where the meeting was taking place, "As you know, the Hidden Star Village and its home nation is nearly completely surrounded by deadly poison gas crevices that bar nearly 90 percent of all access to the country."

"I see," Kurina caught on immediately, "If they can't handle it, they will for the most part, be trapped in their own country and easily wiped out."

"Yep and that's annoying as hell since Omoi will complain about it," Karui bent over with her hands on her hips as she let out a long suffering sigh about that before looking up to the other girl, "We need a plan to do something about those oversized beasts and other monsters running about."

Kurina only nodded. Since they first appeared three months ago, the threat of oversized and berserk creatures had become serious. Still, for the most part, while that was the case, it wasn't beyond handling. Most samurai were competent enough to bring them down with very light casualties and only the occasional death.

As long as they were able to respond first that is.

Even ninja who ran away for some of the most trifling of reasons were getting pardoned and put back into service. Mostly they had been recalled to help reinforce the lines when ninja were sent out to back up the samurai. As a result, after the first stint of surprise attacks, the situation had changed around. That is what gave the samurai a slight edge, though ninja had enough power to fight the creatures more or less evenly.

Sighing mentally at the world gone mad, Kurina noticed Karui was dressed as she usually was.

The dark skin, though she would use the term more of being chocolate skin and that reminded her of why she was going to go see her mother, but the girl before her with chocolate skin was wearing grey shorts and a grey tank top over a simple white shirt. She had a split skirt on that allowed her to move freely, though if one looked under the cloth, they could make out the hidden knives strapped to her thighs and the scale armor she wore there, and armored split toed boots on her feet.

Over her tank top and shirt she would normally wear an armored vest. She had currently removed both to keep cooler, given that Konoha was lower and warmer than the mountain based Kumo. She still had her headband with the metal plate bearing her home's symbol on her forehead and from how Kurina could she her hair matted, she had probably been wearing a helmet at one point.

The girl also had a crush on Naruto for calling her pretty when they first met.

Karui noticed how Kurina was eying her and the Kumo redhead shook her head mentally. It was understandable that the Uzumaki and Konoha would be at odds with the people of Kumo. Heck, only because it was needed to secure its flank that Konoha and the Lady Hokage even put up with being in the same room as A.

The blood there was pretty bad, Karui especially knew that.

But she also noticed the appearance of the village.

"Finally getting around to celebrating Saint Valentine's Day, eh?" the girl from Kumo nodded impressed, "I heard that the further you get from the overseas trade ports the rarer it got to see a foreign spectacle or festival."

"It's been celebrated before," Kurina supplied, once she had calmed down, she could stand being around a Kumo ninja as she indicated the village, "But that was sometime before."

"I know," Karui acknowledged as she eyed the places being decorated, "It's nice, given how it's a good day to show someone you care," and she left it at that as she was terribly shy when it came to trying to tell Naruto how she liked him.

She wasn't a tsundere, she just wasn't good with expressing her feelings to him. She didn't hide them or try to pretend that no one noticed, heck A was going to try to break the ice with discussions about a marriage when the time was right. It was just that she just found herself too weak in the knees to tell him and that was that.

"So," Karui began as she eyed the Konoha redhead out of the corner of her eye, "Are you going to finally-"

**_"WHO ARE YOU CALLING FAT?!" _**was suddenly heard as an explosion took place down the road,**_ "I'M JUST BIG BONED!"_**

Both girls groaned as they both palmed their faces.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, Kushina sighed as finished seeing her fellow Kage out. It had been a trying day for them all. The Kazekage was not being difficult, just badly concerned. That was understandable. Given how his village and most of his country was depended on the trade routes that were now under threat of these monster animals. The same also applied to the Hoshikage and his people.

Fortunately, A, the Lord Raikage, was an able leader.

With his help, she was able to secure a more stable peace to her northern areas. The Fire Daimyo would be pleased no doubt. This would allow them to create a mobile reserve and at the same time, shift more forces into the areas currently affected and their surrounding environs.

Hopefully, that would be enough.

But for now, she had a new concern that was immediately brought to her attention.

The Akimichi boy had caused some serious property damage, again. This time, it was in response to some people from out of the village. They were a small group of mountain men from some place or another. As was their way, they were tall, broad shouldered men who looked like walking mountains.

They had derided the boy until he had showed them otherwise.

So now she had to decide what to do with them and to find a suitable punishment for Akimichi Chouji.

Ten seconds later, a thought came to mind and the paperwork was filled out five minutes later.

Now she had time for her daughter, "Send for Kurina," she spoke aloud and if one looked closely, the shadows were now different in the office.

* * *

Naruto, having arrived in class early on Valentine's Day, was sitting at his desk when he felt… something… in the air trying to spark something wrong. He wasn't sure what it was that was wrong, but he knew that it needed to be taken care of, and fast.

Getting up from his seat, he walked over to the chalkboard and wrote a note for Iruka-sensei that said, "Something came up all of a sudden. I'll be back before long. Naruto."

With that written, he walked over to the doorway that led to outside the school, playing with himself the age old game of "Hot and Cold". The way this game worked with him was simple: He was aiming for the spot that essentially screamed "hot" while using guesswork to figure out if he was supposed to get either that end of the spectrum or the "cold" end. So far, the rules of the game remained the same, but the outcome of the search was different each time. Sometimes, he'd have to find the "cold" end of the spectrum and figure out what was wrong that way, but he had a feeling that, this time, he was supposed to go find the "hot" end.

He seriously hoped that nobody he cared about was involved in this mess.

* * *

Kurina was walking to class for the day, chocolate in hand for her sweetheart, when she felt something bugging her senses. She didn't know what it was that was bugging her senses, but it was telling her not to head to school, otherwise things would get… messy.

Shaking her head, she ignored the feeling, which was probably the source of superstition anyway. As she walked towards the academy, the feeling intensified at a slow and steady rate, warning her that heading to school was gonna be a really bad idea. The feeling continued to intensify as she headed for the direct route to the Konoha Ninja Academy, which she felt was strange, though it should be impossible for her to be getting this strange feeling when everyone else in the Ninja Academy was headed this way.

Finally, she was within 50 meters of the school when the feeling was at it's strongest, and she was starting to get confused by the amount of negativity that came with the feeling. When she made it to the 45 meters away from school mark….

* * *

Atop a building in the immediate area, a few meters away from Kurina's location, a young adolescent girl dressed in a brown hooded robe that obscured her face, except for the area immediately around her mouth, prepared to use a powerful Illusionary spell, _Illusion of the Senses_, while holding some string to play the game "Cats in the Cradle". As she made a specific pattern, she mouthed the words for the spell in question, and, when she finished the pattern and the mouthing, that was when Kurina started to experience Hell on Earth.

_'Now, Kurama, it's time to show you your __**true**__ nature in this cruel and twisted world,'_ the girl thought, a cruel smirk adorning her face.

But, unknown to the assailant, a certain group of Konoha ninja was walking by and suddenly became alert to something out of place.

* * *

Kurina was about to walk one more step after the 45 meter mark when the world around her distorted, showing a purple sky and black clouds, and all different kinds of shades of gray for the other people and buildings. Looking all around her, she saw that Konoha seemed to get smaller and smaller… until she realized that it was the other way around, that **she** was getting **bigger** and **bigger**!

Before long, she noticed that her body was morphing, turning into that of a Kyuubi no Yoko like the one that attacked Konoha the day she was born! In shock, Kurina tried to speak in the human tongue, but the most she got out of it was yipping like a fox.

She realized that she had to get out of this mess, but with her body the way it was, there was no way she could run away with her hind legs. There was also the fact that she couldn't just use her hands or anything to see if this was a Genjutsu or whatever… right?

_"Good, you realize the futility of the situation, Kurama. Your very nature is that of a beast, something that is meant to be controlled, not that of a human being, one that does the controlling,"_ a man's voice spoke from inside her head, making Kurina shiver from the cold tone used.

_'Who… who's there? And who's Kurama?'_ Kurina thought, unsure of the situation at hand.

_"My real name is not important to you, as I am your master, so you are only to call me 'Master'. As for the identity of your true form, well, your name is Kurama, and _you_ are the __**Kyuubi no Yoko**__!"_ The man's voice became a feral type of cold as he spoke this to Kurina.

Kurina, in spite of hearing those words, shook her head in denial, before thinking, _'No… I'm not the Fox! I'm a human girl named Uzumaki Kurina! There's no _way_ I can be a fox demon!'_

But it had to be true, didn't it? The whispers she heard. The secret desires. The terrifying nightmares. The revelry of the misery of others.

Was she really-

It was at this point that Kurina blacked out, the illusion she had been trapped in forcibly collapsing, and someone caught her before she could fall face first into the ground.

* * *

About half a minute earlier, Naruto had managed to find the source of the trouble at the "hot" end of the spectrum, showing him a girl wearing a brown hooded robe that obscured much of her face. While she was smirking cruelly, he felt that there was something innately… wrong… with her energy, which didn't make sense to him. Still, he knew better than to just let her continue with what she was doing, so he leapt up to the level of the roof she was on and gave a hard and swift chop to the back of her head as he grabbed onto her robe as she spun to the edge and yanked her back hard.

What he did had the desired effect. Not only did the girl drop the Cat's Cradle she made, therefore stopping the illusion, but she herself blacked out.

* * *

At roughly the same time, a man in a different part of the world cried out in pain, holding the back of his head as he did so. Upon noticing nothing wrong with it, he immediately began to wonder what could have happened to give him the pain, not even realizing his "puppet" was the reason why.

* * *

A few hours later, back at the Konoha Ninja Academy, Naruto and Kiba walked into the classroom. The class was very subdued at the moment and some showed genuine concern for Naruto. The ANBU in the room barely helped matters, but at least he wasn't getting in the way.

Hyuuga Hinata had stood up and immediately wrapped her arms around him, giving a genuinely warm hug. Naruto smiled at that, given how he knew how much Hinata hated being looked at as possible breed stock for him. She still had a warm and caring heart.

"Thanks Hinata," Naruto returned it and the two parted just before Ino wrapped him in a harder one, what with being a friend of sorts to Kurina before the two parted themselves and the two boys made their way up to their spots only for a leg to bar passage.

"How is she?" and Naruto turned to his left to see the seated Uchiha Sasuke looking genuinely concerned with his leg out to bar the two boys' passage for the moment.

* * *

_Naruto walked into the Konoha Hospital, carrying the girl in his arms, when he noticed his mother waiting in front of him at the receptionist's desk. Naruto, curious about what brought his mother here from her important business at the Hokage Mansion, asked, "Mom? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your office?"_

_Kushina, looking at Naruto, gave a gasp of surprise when she saw the girl in his arms. "Naruto! Why do you have a girl in your arms?!"_

_Naruto, aware of the nature of why his mother asked that question, answered, "She was doing something with a piece of string that made someone in her line of sight go into a state of confusion, though I didn't get a good look at who it was. I knocked her out cold to stop it from continuing, and then I brought her here, to make sure that someone could watch over her and make sure that she didn't do anything strange. I don't know how I could tell, but I just could, for some odd reason." After a bit of thought, he asked, "By the way, who was it that got put into a state of confusion, mom?"_

_Kushina didn't say anything, merely directing that the girl be taken from Naruto. The ANBU did as commanded and under the supervision of a doctor, gently laid the girl out on a gurney. That's when the ANBU noticed a mark on her neck that was quickly fading. So did the doctor._

_"Lady Hokage," the ANBU called his leader over, "There appears to be a mark on her neck, quickly fading away."_

_Kushina hurried over and took a look herself. The mark was nearly gone and so she had no idea of the design, but she could see that it had at one point covered the back of her neck. Strangely, there was a bruise there too. She had a guess as to what had happened._

_"Take her into an isolation ward and keep a close watch," Kushina grimaced about what she would have to do, "I'll call him, but both of you remember what you saw so you can tell him," and both men nodded before taking the girl away._

_"Mom," Naruto watched the girl go, but trusted his mother to know what was right, "Who did she attack?"_

_Kushina sighed as she turned to look Naruto in the eye before saying, "Kurina, Naruto. Your sister was on her way to the Ninja Academy… and got assaulted in her mind by a mysterious group, if the girl in your arms is any indication."_

_Naruto gasped in shock, almost dropping the girl in his arms. His sister was assaulted? That couldn't be true!_

_Then, Naruto thought of something, something that he was worried about. With a shaky voice, he asked, "Wait, who brought Kurina here, then?"_

_It was at that point that Kiba made himself known with a cough, before saying, "I brought her here." With Naruto's attention on him, he added, "My mom and sister were with me when we discovered a strange energy being used in the area where your sister was. It was at the time when the confusion ended that I grabbed onto your sister before she fell on her face," Kiba shook his head sadly, "According to my mother and sister, Kurina went into a high level state of shock -whatever that means-, and so they had made sure that I got her to the hospital."_

_Kiba shook his head after he finished speaking. He was looking left and right, showing that whatever happened to Kurina had done a number on him too. He was thoroughly spooked, no, fully frightened by what he had seen. For something to unnerve someone as brash and thick headed, according to his mother and sister, it had to be really bad._

_"Is she going to be okay, mother?" Naruto looked hopeful towards his mother who could only close her eyes as she remembered what she had been told._

_But then she opened her eyes and pulled her son in close, holding him against herself, "She's an Uzumaki, Naruto," Kushina gently stroked Naruto's hair, missing doing so to her late husband, "Kurina is a strong girl, she will recover in time," then holding her son at arm's length, "Especially with such a great brother as you to be there for her."_

_Naruto nodded, tears flowing down his face, before saying, "Thanks, mom. I will be there for her."_

* * *

"She's doing alright," Naruto answered Sasuke, grateful that the guy didn't have a stick up his rear end. "I'm glad that you care, Sasuke, I really am."

"Yeah," Sasuke said. "It wouldn't do for her to be heavily medicated, or for anything wrong to happen to her. Not only would that make her look bad, but it would be a blemish on you, because you're one of the most protective brothers out there." With that, Sasuke moved his leg back from in front of Naruto and Kiba, allowing the two of them to move to their seats.

By the time Naruto got to his seat, he was about to sit down, though Kiba stopped him momentarily with a hand grabbed onto his shoulder. Turning to Kiba, Naruto was about to ask what that was for, when the Inuzuka held out a valentine box.

"Your sister had this with her," Kiba explained, as Naruto grabbed hold of the box. "It had your name on it, though I don't know why that's the case, but I won't pry."

"Er… thanks, Kiba," Naruto said, genuinely thankful, though with a bit of reluctance, not sure how to feel at the moment.

"Don't thank me, Naruto," Kiba said. "Thank your sister for making sure the chocolate was given to you in the first place."

Naruto nodded, thinking on who could have given him the box of chocolates through his sister, before he opened the box to find a note in his sister's handwriting on top of the candy. Upon taking the note out of the box, he proceeded to read it. The contents of the note were surprising, to say the least.

Naruto-onii-chan,

I honestly don't know why I feel this way, but, well,  
I think I'm falling for you… hard. I know what issues  
might arise from this, but I don't care. I love you  
more than how a sister should love her big brother…  
please, tell me honestly when you can, do you love  
me the same way?

I love you with all my heart and soul,  
Kurina

_'Kurina….'_

* * *

A few days later, in the Konoha Hospital, the unknown girl was still in the isolation ward when she began to shift. The guard on watch noticed this and alerted his superior and the medical staff. Through the armored glass, a man observed her regaining conscious as her shifting increased. He noted the doctor arriving and entering the room to check her condition. The guard neatly folded his paper and placed it away. Then the girl began to open her eyes. They fluttered for a few moments before she seemed to regain consciousness and they began, slowly, to take in the realm around her.

Her brown hair nearly covered her opening brown eyes as she began to return to the realm of the living. Her head throbbed and hurt, making her wonder if she had hit her head. She almost thought someone was pulling a prank on her, until she heard the constant beeping of things she had never heard before… and it was driving her _nuts_.

_"What the… what's that noise?" _she shifted slightly as her eyes began to focus and adjust to the light of the room and its contents,_ "And where on Gaia am I?"_ The girl was utterly confused and the beeping wasn't helping her. She looked around and though she did see the white ceiling and walls, the other parts of the room were completely foreign to her. But, from how she could smell a sterile scent, it made her wonder if she was in an apothecary of some sort.

As she moved to bring her hand to her forehead to rub away some of the pain, she found she couldn't. She tried again, finding something restricting its movement. She tried her other hand and found the same. Even her feet and legs felt bound as did her body and head.

With growing panic she began to try and free herself, but she couldn't. It didn't help, that as she thrashed, she found that her bare back and bottom were rubbing against the strange material of the bed. This only added to her anxiety as she began to go into a full blown panic attack.

That is, until a pair of hands gently placed themselves on her shoulders and she looked up to see a man with tan features, slanted black eyes, and short cut black hair with a cow's lick sticking out from the left side dressed in a white long tunic with many pockets over a beige vest with creme colored trousers.

"Ah, good, you're awake," he spoke to her in a language that was utterly foreign to her, "But you need to calm down miss or you will hurt yourself," he went on, though his tone was gentle and comforting despite a rather hard look in his eyes that made his advice a command.

She froze up and looked nervously up at him. She could see another man with greying black hair behind him. The second one had on a black-grey uniform of some kind with a thick cloth armored tunic with forearm and shin guards of a foreign design. His face had several cuts and a burn mark, though he still retained a level of handsome appearance. He wore a light helmet with a metal plate on it with a symbol of a stylized leaf.

The girl calmed down, taking a few deep breathes as she looked up at the man in white.

_"W...what language are you speaking in? Do you know Latin?"_ The girl was utterly confused by the man's words, unsure of what he said, or anything and it was beginning to show, though she had calmed down to think, it was only momentary where one man was concerned.

"It seems you don't know the native language around here," the man, possibly a healer of some kind -she hoped- spoke, before he frowned, his eyes hardening. "Or, maybe, you're just playing dumb."

The girl was hopelessly confused and terribly frightened. But, before she could say anything about anything -not that the conversation could be understood-, she felt a strange tug on her mind. Then, before she could question it, she promptly lost control of her body and found herself returning to a strange blackness, aware, but nothing more. Again, before she could wonder what had happened to her, she felt, she felt… something like a separate entity give her the knowledge needed to comprehend the language that was the standard speak for this strange and terrifying place. She also found, as well, a bit of history and common knowledge left with her, giving her an idea of where she was, who was keeping her prisoner, and some of their ways so as to better communicate and understand.

Finally, she could see the world itself around her. She blinked and shifted and was surprised that she had control over her body again. It was during her quick assessment of her restored control that she heard another man speaking and now she could understand the language, "No, she wasn't playing dumb, Doctor Ekasa. She honestly didn't know our language," she looked over, as far as her restrained head would allow, to see a man in a grey uniform with black boots and belt, long platinum blonde hair in a high ponytail with long bangs framing his face and going over a headband with the symbol of the Hidden Leaf as he stepped forward, his pale blue eyes showing neutrality, but he could honestly sympathize with her, she felt, as he kept speaking.

"I helped her learn our language while deciphering her own," he went on, addressing the man in white, Dr. Ekasa. "So now she'll be able to understand us now and us her."

The girl saw Dr. Ekasa merely nod in understanding as he looked to the blonde man before speaking, "I sure hope that there's a good reason for her attacking the Lady Hokage's daughter, Yamanaka-dono," the doctor shook his head. "Otherwise… well, that would be a problem, for sure."

The girl immediately froze up after hearing the discussion. Had she attacked the daughter of a noble? She couldn't recall running into any noble or their daughter. She tried to dredge up the title Hokage and quickly found it as part of the information given to her.

She blanched, turning a deathly white at what the information provided her. The Hokage was the military and political leader of Konoha. It was a title given to the best among them, the most gifted at leadership and combat. The current leader was a woman with long red hair named Uzumaki Kushina and she was a driven individual with a fiery streak about her.

In a panic, the girl finally spoke up, hoping to build a defense for herself. After all, she hadn't attacked anyone. She couldn't have, right?

_"Wait, hold on! You have the wrong person!" _she pleaded in a panic, catching confused looks on two of the three males present, _"I would never attack a noble's daughter! Honest! Please, it wasn't me!"_

The blonde walked over to her bed side. The girl recoiled in fear and tried to get away, fearing she was about to be struck. She whimpered as he reached out, trying to withdraw from his grasp, but bound as she was, she couldn't.

Then suddenly she was toppling over the edge, only for strong and calloused hands to stop her from falling.

"Easy there girl," the blonde smiled softly, "I was in your head just a few moments ago," she gasped in shock at that knowledge, "So I know you didn't, not by choice or awareness anyways."

"Sir?" the guard looked confused at his superior.

"When I looked into her head, her memories just stopped abruptly in a strange place called Gaia," the Yamanaka shrugged his shoulders as he helped the girl back onto her bed and carefully covered her back up, patting her fatherly on the head. "As such, she wasn't aware of what was happening until she came to."

"Ah!" Dr. Ekasa made the sound as he came to understand, "I really hate those cases and this is my first one."

"Fourth time for me guarding such a case," the guard mumbled in annoyance loud enough to be heard, "I really hate that black art."

_"Wh-what?" _the girl looked confused as the whole demeanor of the two men changed and the atmosphere had started to become a bit warmer towards her.

"Our language, please," the blonde man kindly asked with a soft smile and the girl nodded and looked into herself and found the knowledge.

"Ah! Y-yes, my apologies," the girl blushed and tried to hide under the blankets in embarrassment, but the blonde man, Yamanaka, didn't let her as he laughed kindly and prevented her from doing so.

"Ah, young girls," Yamanaka chuckled as he fondly thought of his own daughter, "Of course my Ino is a bit more forward than many girls her age."

"You have a daughter?" she felt immediately jealous that she didn't have parents and the man seemed to notice this as he gave a fatherly pat on her head and a warm smile.

"Where are my manners," Yamanaka began, purposely changing the subject. "My name is Yamanaka Inoichi, Elesia, but I'm afraid that Dr. Ekasa and Osamaru are not as knowledgeable."

"You know my name?!" the girl squeaked in surprise.

"Introduce yourself," Inoichi responded instead with a bit of firmness, like a father with his daughter.

"Oh yes?!" she began flustered again, was this like having a father ran through her mind, "I'm Elesia," she bowed and wondered why she was doing so.

The two men merely chuckled, "Doctor Ekasa Kai," the doctor introduced himself and bowed back as did the guard, "I'm Chunin Osamaru," he supplied with a kind look on his scarred face.

"Now that that's all cleared up," a wizened old voice soon filled the room as an older man in a formal green and red attire that Elesia realized was called a kimono stepped in, with an aging, but kindly face weathered by years of leadership and hardship, a gleam of mirth and intelligence in his eyes with a smoking pipe in one hand, and gentle and warming smile, "Let's get her to another room. One not so isolated and feeling more than a little damp."

"The heating has been on the fritz again," Osamaru shrugged with some annoyance, "Happens about this time of year regularly."

"I'll speak with Kushina and see about more money into replacing anything if it comes to it," the man sighed before remembering and turning to the young girl, "I'm Sarutobi Hiruzen young Elesia-chan," he bowed kindly to her, "Retired Sandaime Hokage of Konoha," he came back up to a standing position, "It is a pleasure to meet you young one."

"N-no," Elesia bowed and wondered what was all the bowing about, "I-it is my pleasure and honor Lord Hokage."

The old man only chuckled lightly as pair of orderlies began to move the bed that Elesia was in to another, more welcoming room.

* * *

Naruto walked around for a bit after class again. He was still thinking of things that happened and where he stood. His mind in turmoil.

In his pocket, was the card that Kurina had written. He wondered about it. Wondered about life and the mysteries there within.

Okay, so he was simply confused.

Unlike kids, even the regular civvie kids, from other non-ninja villages, he and his peers had to grow up sooner. That was the nature of being a ninja, but also the use of Chakra. They were more hypersensitive to nature regardless of affinity. As such, they developed physically and mentally differently from other kids. Even the children who would never be ninja were 'soaked' in the 'feel' of Chakra and much more attuned to it than those from regular villages, towns, cities, whatever.

He didn't have the luxury of waiting to start to feel things that teens half again older than him would feel when they had the age and hormones to deal with it.

He looked up.

Again he was in front of the hospital.

He clenched his hands.

He entered.

* * *

Deep in the recesses of her mind, Kurina struggled and fought with the nightmares of who she truly was. Flashing deep within her was the desire of power and carnage. The hungry taste of revenge filled her thoughts. To torch, crush, burn, destroy.

She watched helplessly as she gleefully destroyed her home. Killed her family, her friends, everything that made Kurina who she was.

A taunting voice spoke of how this is what she wanted. How she would enjoy it. The power she had, sealed within the pathetic form that was Kurina.

She was Kurama no Yoko.

The fierce Nine Tailed Fox. Harbinger of destruction and malice incarnate. She only lived to destroy and hate. To be the source of pain and obliteration in the world.

_'Enjoy your power Kurama,'_ the voice taunted with a poison steeped in honey, _'Embrace who you are… WHAT you are. Become destruction incarnate again and bring these feeble fools to their knees.'_

Kurina desperately thought of her mother.

_'Yes, a jailed felon would likely become homesick for his prison when released.'_

Her brother.

_'A lie,'_ the voice stated matter of factly, _'He would betray you or become your next prison,'_ it paused_, 'Why turn to the jail? When you can run free.'_

Everything she turned to, the voice brought about darkness. Kurina could only scream. A prisoner trapped within her own mind as she was tormented. Little by little she began to become that which she had always feared…

Kurama again.

By the Sage, would someone not rescue here!

_"Kurama, my child,"_ a soft, aged voice gently came. _"It may not be my time, but always remember that I shall be with you always…"_

In that moment a light blossomed to life.

_'Hagoromo-tousan,'_ Kurama thought and Kurina gasped as Kurama chuckled lightly, her voice soft and full of mirth, _'Yes, Kurina, we are not the same.'_

Then, in that moment…

**_"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"_**

_'Naruto!'_

* * *

"What?" the man in the orange spiral mask was knocked clean off his feet by the punch Naruto delivered.

The man managed to roll over his shoulder, but Naruto still got him with a knee to the face. The intruder's head snapped back as he released a curse. The boy wasn't giving him time to take control of Kurama once more. So he would just have to remove the boy altogether.

"Foolish boy," his visible eye aligned as it narrowed, but then widened in shock when, instead of cerulean blue, pools of fiery amber looked back.

It was a startling discovery.

The birthmarks were darker and longer, much more pronounced. The eyes looked like molten steel forming into sharp blades that would not yield or bend. Break perhaps, but never bend. Clawed hands shot forth as the small boy leaped forward with uncanny grace and surprising power.

Tobi clicked his tongue and barely escaped, but still cried out as energy, barely visible to his eye, cut him nonetheless.

Naruto's charge took him to the wall, where he promptly put a hole through it. He turned back and started searching, ever careful, wary. His opponent could be anywhere and everywhere. The question was where?

"I shall return, boy," the intruder's voice boomed throughout the room and hospital that was in quite the stir from the shaking it took, "I shall return and have what is rightfully mine."

**_"GO TO HELL!"_** Naruto roared in a deep beastial way,**_ "NEVER TOUCH KURINA AGAIN, BASTARD! I'LL RIP YOU TO PIECES, BELIEVE IT!"_**

"Try if you can, boy," was the last thing that Tobi said for his 'visit', before he faded into nothingness for the time being.

* * *

A few minutes later, Naruto had calmed down exponentially. It was something that he needed to do, given the threat to his sister's safety having passed on by. Of course, he still needed some questions answered, preferably by her.

Eventually, Naruto made his way to his sister's bedside, sitting down in the chair next to her bed. He was worried sick for one of his remaining family… it was only natural for him to worry. After all, he was her brother… her onii-chan, as she wrote it.

But could they remain that way?

After all, she had fallen in love with him as he had with her. The two could no longer be siblings, could they? If they had reached that point.

Naruto bent over, his lips meeting Kurina's own in a gentle kiss.

Come what will, come what may…

They would see it through together.

Kurina responded with a gentle moan as her eyes fluttered open, tears in them. They remained liplocked for a few more seconds before parting. Kurina immediately went to speak, trying to say something. Yet she couldn't. She couldn't find the words. She couldn't form the sentences. How could she tell him the truth.

She then decided to just bolt. To leave, to run and never look back.

But Naruto gripped her in a gentle hug. Holding her against him. He ran a hand gently through her red hair. He remembered their mother's words about how she finally found herself in love with their father, his father…

"Na… ru…" Kurina began, but Naruto gently placed two fingers on her lips.

"I know," and he held her close, Kurina instinctively putting her head on his shoulder, feeling a warmth she never thought she would feel.

_'You are not me kit,'_ a voice floated gently through her head,_ 'For now, I'll rest again until it is time to talk.'_

Kurina gently let the tears of joy roll down her cheeks as she held her boyfriend.

* * *

Outside the room, Kushina just smiled. Her adopted daughter, she knew all along what had happened. She was a pureblood Uzumaki with power rivaling that of her great aunt Mito. Nevertheless, she had taken Kurina in, named her after herself and raised the girl as her own daughter.

Now she would be happy with Naruto, of that she was certain as she pushed off the wall.

_'The winds of change yet blow,' _she thought as she walked down the hallway as ANBU and Jounin made the building safe, _'For now, the breeze that will herald the change gently fan.'_

* * *

**Xamusel Fifth A/N: Well… this was shorter than I anticipated. Still, at least the chapter will be edited to a huge degree, compared to the initial posting of the previous one.**

**Anyway, what can I say? Tomcat and I had a plan for this chapter, and it went off without… much of a hitch, to be honest, because of outside circumstances. Of course, given that the content of the chapter was meant to be during February, I had to retcon the previous timeline of the story to account for the three month time skip to near Valentine's Day.**

**Still, in regards to Elesia, she'll be important for later on down the road. Believe me, that's the truth, she ****_will_**** be important. No, I don't want to rush in new characters, but it seemed like a good idea to introduce her before I forgot about her.**

**As far as Tobi? It took me a while to learn why he was there. He was trying to abduct Kurina before anyone else could… fat load of good ****_that_**** did him.**

**About the chapter as a whole… I'd say that this was a good one (to a degree… meaning, 8.5 out of 10, instead of a perfect 10). If there's anything that makes me wonder how it could have been written differently, it's the scenes from Naruto looking for Elesia, to the end of the day of Valentine's Day.**

**In any case, we've introduced four people with Kyuubi power, though two of them don't have their names revealed yet to you all. The other two are Naruto and Kurina, as you might have guessed, though I won't reveal anything that will be sensitive to the plot at a later point.**

**...would someone please keep track of the amount of plot point in regards to these four people? Two of them are blondes, the other two are redheads, and Naruto's the only Male.**

**Oh, in regards to the ultimate direction I want this to take, I plan on making this a Visual Novel-style computer role playing game. That way… you'll have to see what I plan on doing to know how well it might work. I just don't want to reveal the surprises involved in how the story of the game will play out.**

**Yes, that's right, the game story will be somewhat different from the fanfic story as it goes further down. It's primarily because the fanfic is just the prototype of the game, so I need to do things differently in the game itself, if only because, that way, the story will have been more refined.**

**Now then, that's all I can say, for the time being.**

**For now? I'll hand this off to Tomcat. He has to have a say in what's going on.**

* * *

**Tomcat Second A/N: Okay… The second chapter as you can tell is done. We're trying to align everything so there's space and room to move, but given the planned number of chapters, don't be surprised if the pacing is a bit quick.**

**That said, we will do our utmost to keep things as well spaced as possible.**

**Now we have Elesia. Poor girl doesn't know the heck is going on. You can imagine what she might be like around Ino.**

**As for Hinata and Naruto. Xamusel feels that might be a little too overused. So we're going to take a back seater on that one for the time being. So instead we're making it where Hinata has a slight dislike towards Naruto based on what everyone knows what her family life is like. Only now she's being used in clan politics in order to one up the rival Uchiha Clan because Kushina and her family are closer to them thanks to her personal friendship with Uchiha Mikoto. As such, Hinata has become resentful at being used as such, as simply being considered only good for breeding stock.**

**Ladies, please check your tempers, Xam and I live in the Western USA, not downtown Talibanstan.**

**(Stan means 'Land/Home' over there, like Pakistan and Afghanistan among others which translate as Land/Home of the Paki people or Afghan people. That's if my memory on the names are correct. Been a while since I looked at that.)**

**So Hinata has been a bit bitter towards Naruto as shown, poor Kiba too.**

**Unfortunately, Kushina is good at finding these things out. What she does is a secret at this time. Though she feels for Hinata and doesn't ride her case about it.**

**Plus Naruto needs to learn to be a bit more careful about being pranked himself!**

**Oh geez… look at that… we let the secret out…**

**Kurina is Kurama… oh no.**

**Yeah, about as exciting as watching Shikamaru snore.**

**What will happen as time rolls on?**

**Personally, not a ruddy clue in mind.**

**Now things are also building up.**

**Who is the mysterious controller who wanted to control Kurama and, by proxy, Kurina?**

**Not a clue folks. A mysterious entity with plans unknown. A threat to others with their own plans.**

**That said, Tobi felt threatened and made his own move. Now he finds out that Naruto is able to access the Nine Tails' power. How ****_did_**** he do that? Well, Tobi will be more careful in the future now. Especially since now that Kushina knows he is still alive and she has a bone to pick with him.**

**Breaking his bones that is.**

**But let's not forget what is happening between Naruto and Kurina. The two are transcending sibling ties. They intend to become more. And Kushina is perfectly fine with it.**

**They are adopted siblings after all.**

**So that should wrap that up.**

**Next chapter should be as good as this, perhaps even better.**

**So don't forget to tune in next time kid****_-dies_****!**

**This is Three Dog- Oops, wrong fanfic!**

**F-14 Tomcat Lover signing off now.**

* * *

**Xamusel Sixth A/N: Okay, so I don't really have all the chapters I said I'd have written done by now, which is something I really suck at. Then again, after the third Pilot chapter is released, which should be next week, I'll go back to the traditional way of doing things, mainly by posting the new chapter after making sure it's done and ready to go.**

**Oh yeah, one last thing. I started a Roleplay based in the setting of this story, and I'm looking for players to help me tell the story. The forum is labeled "Fantasy Unleashed Roleplay", and I encourage people to give it a good look over before deciding if they want to participate, as I don't want to force the issue.**

**Alright, this is it for me now, so….**

**_Sayonara no Tsubasa  
-Xamusel_**


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